Spring Break
by Malkharah
Summary: AU. Kagome just wishes she could be an ordinary girl, not burdened with the duties of shrine life. Fighting demons and guarding holy relics is a dent in her social life. That is until her friends take her to this hott club where she meets Inuyasha...
1. Friday Night Lights

Author's Note 8-21-2010: I just now realized that I somehow managed to upload the second chapter of this fic as both the first and second chapter on this site. That mistake should now be corrected and you should be able to read the correct first chapter. I did a little editing, too, to try and smooth out a few irregularities and breaks in continuity that had previously escaped my notice. Please let me know if you spot anything that's out of place and doesn't fit correctly with the story and I'll fix it.

Blanket disclaimer for the whole fic, since I hate repeating myself: Inuyasha and any names, objects, places, or allusions you recognize from the anime/films and/or manga are the property of Rumiko Takahashi and her publishers and licensed distributors, and they in no way, shape or form belong to me. If other things that belong to other people appear in the story (such as music), I will do my best to point them out and give their proper owners the credit they deserve.

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Chapter One

~0~0~0~

Kagome Higurashi was bored. She sighed and shifted in her seat. _Math sucks._ She decided, not for the first time. The teacher was up at the front of the room lecturing about multiplying matrices and Kagome wanted nothing more than to jump out the window to her left.

Today was the last day of class before spring break would start and the thought of two whole weeks without school was making her twitch with anticipation. Math was her last class of the day and there was only about a half an hour left. She could hardly wait.

Someone poked her in the back and she twisted her arm around behind her to accept the note from Yuka, one of her best friends. Kagome glanced up at the front of the room and waited until the teacher's back was turned and he was absorbed in writing something on the board before quickly unfolding the note and spreading it out flat on her desk.

'_Eri says she knows of this really hot party that's happening tonight. Ayumi says we can use her house to get ready at, cause her parents are out of town for the weekend. You in?'_

Kagome frowned at the note for a moment before writing her response. _'I thought there was an activity night here at the school. Why would we go to some party?'_ She glanced at the teacher again to make sure he wasn't looking then tossed the note back over her shoulder.

A few minutes later it came sailing back and bounced across her desk coming to a halt next to her pencil. She snatched it and unfolded it again, keeping her eye on the teacher.

'_Why would you want to go to some crappy high school activity night when we could go to a cool party? It'll be so much better! You have to come!'_

Kagome smiled a little bit and jotted down her answer. _'Where is it? How did Eri find out about it?'_ She lifted her arm as if to scratch the back of her neck and dropped the note over her shoulder.

After a couple minutes the note dropped back over her shoulder. _'Eri knows this girl who knows this guy who's best friends with this other guy whose older brother owns this club. Eri got us in! It's gonna be soooo hot! The club is called The GCP. You've heard of it, I know. It's in Shinjuku District.'_

Kagome had indeed heard of it. The Garden of Carnal Pleasures was supposed to be the hottest club in Tokyo. People flocked there on weekends and the line to get in was always at least an hour long, usually longer. They had a restaurant, several dance floors, an arcade, a game room, a bowling alley, snack bars; it was like a Discothèque only a billion times better. But Kagome didn't know how they were going to get in, you had to be eighteen and she was only seventeen.

'_I know of it. But how will we get in? We're too young.'_ She tossed the note onto Yuka's desk.

A moment later it came sailing back. _'Were you reading this note or not? Eri knows the owner! We don't have to be old enough! We're VIPs! No lines! No people! No ID check!'_

Kagome frowned again. _'I don't know, we could get into a lot of trouble…'_ She was about to toss the note back when her teacher cleared his throat.

"Miss Higurashi, was that something you would like to share with the class?"

Kagome shot to her feet. "No, Takahata-sensei. It was nothing."

The teacher merely jerked his head in the direction of a stack of buckets in the front corner of the room. Kagome sighed and got out of her desk, walked up to the front of the room and selected two buckets.

Four minutes later she was standing in the hall holding two buckets of water and grumbling about how she was the only one who ever got caught passing notes.

When the bell rang Kagome stuck her head in the door to see all the students packing up their things. Mr. Takahata beckoned her forward and told her to wait next to his desk until all the other students had filed out. Yuka passed her with an apologetic look and both their school bags in hand, hefting it to let Kagome know she would be waiting outside. Once all the students were gone Mr. Takahata sighed and turned from his task of dusting off the chalk board.

"Higurashi-kun, what's the matter?" He asked. He wasn't angry or unfriendly, merely concerned, and that was why he was one of Kagome's favorite teachers even though he taught her least favorite subject. "You've been having a terrible time concentrating in my class and your work has been slipping. Is there anything you want to talk about?"

Kagome concentrated her gaze on her shoes. There was something that had been plaguing her for a long while now, but she didn't want to talk with him about it. It was just a part of growing up in a Shrine, and one with supposed mystical happenings at that. "No, Sir, there's nothing wrong. I'm just anxious to go for Break and I've been antsy all day. I'm sorry for not paying attention."

He sighed again. "Don't pass notes in my class, Higurashi-kun. One of these days I'll make you read them." He said this in a joking manner and Kagome knew she was forgiven.

She spun on her heel and dashed into the hall where she found Yuka waiting with Eri and Ayumi. The three girls spun to look at her as she jogged up.

"Kagome, did you get in trouble?" Yuka asked, frowning worriedly.

"No, no trouble." Kagome brushed it off. "He just wanted to know what's been bothering me lately."

Ayumi gasped. "You didn't tell him about—"

Kagome clapped a hand over the curly-haired girl's mouth. She looked both ways up and down the hall and eyeballed the distance to the nearest group of kids. Deeming them far enough away to not overhear anything that was said, Kagome removed her hand from Ayumi's mouth and gave her a stern frown. "Don't talk about that in public! I only told you about it because I trust you and I know you'll never tell anyone! If people found out about it, about what I and my family do, we'd either be freaks or a press explosion! No one can know!"

"I'm sorry, Kagome!" Ayumi whispered.

Kagome sighed and smiled at her friend. "It's okay. I guess I kinda over reacted. C'mon." She accepted her bag from Yuka and shouldered it, drawing the others down the hall. "Tell me more about this club you want to go to."

Eri squealed a note that was positively shocking and nearly knocked Kagome over putting her arm around her shoulders. "Oh my gosh! Okay, my cousin Sango is dating this guy whose best friends with the brother of the guy who owns the GCP! Sango said she could get us a couple of VIP passes! That means no lines and no restrictions! We'll have access to all the public areas of the club, even the top floors! It'll be so cool, you have to come!"

Kagome felt somehow uneasy about the whole thing. She set her bag on the floor and pulled out the books she wouldn't need to study from over the break, replacing them with more that she did have to study from. "I don't know, we could get in a lot of trouble…"

"Oh quit being such a wet blanket and have some fun with us, Kagome!" Yuka elbowed her gently in the side. "I know you're a good kid, but honestly it's not good to stay at home all the time and study! If you don't get out more you'll become sick."

"Or socially retarded…" Eri muttered under her breath.

"Hey!" Kagome exclaimed. "I do too get out. I had that date with… with… oh, what's his name? That guy that's stalking me from class 1-D."

"Hojo!" Ayumi told her. "His name's Hojo, and he's not a stalker! He's the most gorgeous boy in the whole school!"

"I don't know why a hunky babe like Hojo asked you out, Kagome." Yuka shook her head. "You're so anti-social."

"I am not!" Kagome slammed her locker door shut. "I just think it's important to study! It's no wonder you guys don't get as good of grades as I do; you're out partying all the time!"

Eri put a finger to the side of her nose. "Ah, such is not the case any longer. Your grades have been slipping lately too."

Embarrassed and angry, Kagome slipped on her street shoes and stalked out the door, her friends fluttering and scrambling to grab their things and catch up.

It really wasn't Kagome's fault. There was only so much one seventeen-year-old girl could do. It was hard enough trying to study for her class placement exams. Now her family had to drop the whole traditional priestess thing on her head. Life in a shrine family was no walk in the park. She was constantly receiving training from her grandfather and mother, instruction in how to use the holy powers she'd been born with to protect the shrine. The Sunset Shrine was not merely her home; it was her job, her birthright, her duty. She was the strongest priestess to be born into the family in many generations and as such she had become the primary guardian of the shrine on her sixteenth birthday. Not only was she charged with maintaining the holy seals on the shrine relics, she was also required to guard the two most precious artifacts they possessed.

The Shikon-no-Tama, the sacred Jewel of Four Souls, was a relic that had survived in her family since the feudal era. It was passed down through the generations to the strongest priest or priestess born into the family. It had been her great-grandmother's. When her great grandma passed away the Jewel was burned with her body to purify it one last time. Her grandfather sealed it in the Shrine with every ounce of his power, which wasn't much. The day Kagome was conceived the Jewel disappeared from the shrine. When Kagome was born her grandfather divined the new location; Kagome's chest. And so Kagome carried the Jewel inside her body every moment of everyday. She was aware of it without being able to feel it, knowing it was there inside her somehow made her feel not so alone all the time. She had to wear a magical charm to help conceal the Jewel's existence, because there were people and… other things… that would want it if it could be found.

The other artifact was unknown to her. It was sealed inside a long slender box plastered with holy seals and surrounded by warding runes and magic sutras. It had a tiny shrine all to itself; that was how important it was. And though she checked and reinforced the seals every single day, she had no idea what was inside the box. She knew that it didn't really belong to her family, that they were guarding it for someone who would one day come to claim it. When he came for the object in the box he was also supposed to claim something else of inestimable value, but beyond the object's pricelessness, no one in her family knew exactly what it was.

On top of all that there was the constant threat of monsters and demons. Though they were much less common in the modern age than they had been in centuries past, monsters and demons were still very real. They lived as a hidden part of society the world over, and society as a whole thought demons were the stuff of mythology. They were able to blend in with normal humans through the use of their magic, and so the average person would never even begin to guess that such fairytales and legends were real and walking along side them every day.

Demons are by their very nature attracted to power, though. And despite the consecrated holy grounds of the shrine and the reinforced holy seals on the artifacts kept there, there had been several attacks against her home. Kagome had repelled each of these attacks since she was a child; then by helping her grandfather and mother, but as she grew older and more powerful, on her own. Each encounter left her heart thundering in her chest…

Kagome's brow furrowed at the thoughts tumbling through her head. 'Why do I have to put up with all of this? I'm only a teenage girl, for crying in the rain! I'm not supposed to guard a shrine and battle demons! It's like my life is a cheesy horror-manga! I should be worried about boys and clothes and make-up, not repelling demon attacks on the shrine and guarding magical artifacts…'

Sighing, she slowed down and allowed her friends to catch up with her. They panted for a while before Eri leaned against a low brick wall and fanned herself with her hand, saying, "So are you going to come with us or not?"

Smiling at her friend's single-mindedness, Kagome shook her head. "I shouldn't. I really shouldn't. But, y'know, I'm kind of sick of being cooped up in my house all the time when I'm not at school. So yes, I think I will come with you."

Yuka squealed and jumped up and down. "Oh, Kagome, this'll be so much fun! You'll see!"

"What time are we meeting at your house, Ayumi?" Kagome asked.

"Seven; the club doesn't open until nine, and no one's there until ten which is when it really starts to hit full swing." Ayumi grinned. "Two or three hours should be enough time for us to get ready. You can spend the night afterwards."

Eri clapped and hopped up and down in place. "Okay, Ayumi's house, seven o'clock. Don't be late, Kagome! And wear something cute!"

"Sure. Bye guys." Kagome watched them begin to walk away before she turned the corner and began climbing the long, centuries-worn flight of steps leading from the streets of Tokyo to the grounds of the Sunset Shrine. The Shrine grounds covered a total area of about fifty acres and encompassed the public shrine grounds, the Higurashi Family residence, and the Demon Wood. The Demon Wood was the name of the remains of the forest that covered most of the shrine grounds, and it was restricted from public access; people had been known to disappear in those woods and never emerge.

Kagome's grandfather stood sweeping at the top of the steps. "Hello, Kagome."

"Hey, Grandpa. I have to hurry, I'm going out tonight." Kagome breezed past him without pausing.

"What? Where are you going?" Grandpa called after her. "Kagome, get back here!"

Kagome ignored him and jogged into the house. "Mom, I'm home! When's dinner?"

"Hello Kagome. Dinner should be ready in an hour or so." Kagome's mom stuck her head out of the kitchen and smiled. "Why? Are you hungry, sweetie?"

"I'm going out tonight." Kagome kicked her shoes off and lined them up along the baseboard with her toe.

"Really? Where?" Mom asked.

"There's a school activity night. Yuka, Eri, Ayumi and I are going to it, and then Ayumi invited us to stay over at her house for the night." Best not to tell Mom about the club, or she'd be nailed to the floor faster than she could blink.

"Well that sounds like fun! When will you be home tomorrow?"

Kagome walked through the living room and started up the stairs. "I don't know. I'll call. Right now I'm going to change and then I'll check the seals for the day. Once I'm done with that I'll bolt down dinner and change into some clothes for the dance. We're meeting up at Ayumi's house at seven."

In her room Kagome closed the door and dumped her bag on the floor next to her desk. Stretching she pulled her school shirt off over her head before rummaging through her drawers for a grubby outfit to wear between now and the time she had to change again. Pulling out a pair of dark grey pajama pants and a pale purple tank top, Kagome shed her nice bra in favor of a sports bra. Before pulling the sports bra on Kagome stretched again and massaged her breasts a bit, hating the feeling wearing a tight shaping bra left in them. Slipping into her grubby outfit, Kagome snatched a pair of black flip-flops and headed back out into the hall and down the stairs to go check the seals.

It was a simple process for her. After having done it so many times she just didn't have to concentrate as hard as she used to. She went through each of the shrine buildings and checked the seals, prodding them with her aura to ensure stability and smoothing over where the magic had begun to fade, bolstering it anew. The shrine holding the box required more of her time and effort. She checked things with her eyes to make sure everything was in its proper place before closing her eyes and sensing the seals to make sure they still held. Satisfied that they wouldn't unravel between now and the next time she repaired them, Kagome slid the door closed and wove a spell on the outside of the box shrine, tying it off with a complicated knot of magic that would take hours to unravel for anyone but her.

Back in the house her mother was just finishing dinner. Kagome helped serve everything, and then ate quickly, keeping her eye on the clock. 'Six-fifteen.' Kagome observed as she excused herself to rinse her dishes. 'I still have time to take a shower.' She did this, sighing as the hot water sluiced over her body, and let the pounding drum of steady water-pressure work the knots out of her neck and shoulders.

Back in her room Kagome went through her closet hanger by hanger trying to decide what to wear. "Ayumi said to wear something cute." She mumbled to herself. "I've never been to a club before. What should I wear?" Glancing at the clock and realizing she didn't have that much time left, Kagome decided on a pale yellow skirt that fell to her knees and a white top that tied around behind the neck and had off the shoulder straps. The empire waistline of the blouse accented her bust without drawing too much attention. She changed back into her nice bra and threw on her outfit, putting her wet hair up so that it wouldn't soak the back and shoulders of her blouse before it dried. She grabbed a pair of white strappy sandals and her purse before heading downstairs.

"Mom, I'm going!" She called while slipping on her shoes.

"Bye, dear. Have fun!" Mom called from the kitchen. "Don't be too late tomorrow, okay?"

"I won't be! Bye!" Kagome slipped out the door and down the shrine steps, heading for Ayumi's house.

Once there she received something less than the greeting she'd been expecting.

"You are not wearing that!" Yuka exclaimed upon opening the door.

Kagome looked down at herself. "What's wrong with it? Ayumi said to wear something cute."

"Yeah. I said cute, not virginal." Ayumi chuckled at the blush that spread across Kagome's cheeks. "Come in, you can borrow something of mine."

Those words would prove to be part of Kagome's undoing.


	2. The Garden of Carnal Pleasures

Chapter Two

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The Garden of Carnal Pleasures, known in short as the GCP, was a large building on the corner of two main streets in downtown Tokyo. As the biggest, coolest, and most popular night club in Tokyo, it was only natural that it be completely over the top. Ten stories high, each floor with increasingly decadent décor, the commonly admitted public never got past the bottom five floors.

The first floor was dedicated to admittance, coat check, and a large café where visitors of the nightclub could sit down to a snack and refreshing beverages. The second floor, which could be accessed by a huge grand staircase, was dedicated to rap, hip hop and R&B, and was decorated in dark reds and grays, with a slight air of sluttish pop culture. Girls wore short skirts and revealing tops in every shade of pink you could imagine with white and the occasional denim flair thrown in. Guys wore baggy jeans hanging off their butts with oversized shirts in vibrantly loud colors and patterns. Most of them thought this was the best floor to be had.

The third floor was dedicated to rock and heavy metal. The beginnings of an industrial theme could be felt here, with chain link fences along the walls and random poles around the perimeter of the dance floor. The patrons on this floor were usually decked out in dark clothes proclaiming their favorite bands and long hair.

The fourth floor was dedicated to techno. Here the industrial theme became really apparent. The walls were made of jagged panels of corrugated metal, chain-link fence and neon lights. The fifth floor was made up as an arcade. All the cool arcade games you could possibly imagine filled the floor.

The way beyond the fifth floor lay in the elevator in one hall way, beyond a pair of scratched and studded metal elevator doors. This elevator was guarded by two of the biggest men most patrons ever saw, dressed to kill in black suits and crisp white shirts with black satin ties. They came fully equipped with mirrored shades and coiled earpiece monitors, through which they received word of who was to be allowed to enter the elevators and to which floor they would be ascending. All others without permission or the right floor pass were to be turned away.

The sixth through eighth floors were of a more refined, classy style. The music was changed to fit the desires of the patrons who were allowed to be here. This was where celebrities were wont to find themselves, though they were just as often mixed with relatively ordinary people with extraordinary attributes; the wealthy but relatively unknown.

The ninth floor was reserved for the… business dealings of the club owner and whom ever he chose to associate with.

The tenth floor was actually the top of the club building and it was what inspired the name of the club; a garden. Beautifully designed to please all the senses, the Garden was reserved for the family and friends of the owner. It was done as a masterful rendering of the traditional Japanese tea garden, complete with koi ponds, Zen rock and sand gardens, bonsai trees of surpassing artfulness, delicate bridges and pagodas of lovely architecture. The small building that sat in the south east corner of the roof housed the elevator and a foyer, where shoes could be changed, umbrellas could be grabbed, anything else that needed to be done before one went outside. The path that cut the most direct route from the elevator building to the skyway only took about two minutes to tread. The skyway was located in the northeast corner of the Garden and spanned the gap between the club building and the building across the street, where the owner and his brother lived.

Sesshoumaru Takahashi was one of the wealthiest men in Japan. With a family fortune worth billions of American dollars he had done wonders in the stock markets that left investors' heads spinning, and only served to increase his already nearly incomprehensible fortune. Not one to rest on his laurels, Sesshoumaru brought the concept of the discotheque to Tokyo and improved it one hundred fold, making The Garden of Carnal Pleasures THE place to be. People of all ages and in all levels of society flocked there like moths to a flame.

And some of the darker and less well known members of society flocked there too. Of course the general public knew nothing about it, but the GCP attracted more than just young adults and celebrities.

It also attracted demons.

Demons exist today just as they did many hundreds of years ago. Though, through hard work and natural selection, mostly only the relatively humanoid ones still survived. In the rural areas of Japan some of the more animalistic demons survived. In the cities, however, they walk among the people, unknown and thought by many to be nothing but elements of fairy-tales. They are hard to spot; they blend in almost perfectly through both their own abilities and some magic. Some still have odd traits; fangs, tails, odd ears, bizarre eye and hair colors. Nothing that can't be explained off as eccentricities or covered up with magic or demonic skill.

Demons made up almost half of the patrons that frequented the GCP. It was a place they knew they could blend in and would be permitted to get away with little slip ups. Sesshoumaru Taisho knew the ways of demons, being one himself.

By his father he was half dog demon, and had inherited his coloring. Snowy white hair, golden slit-pupiled eyes and fair skin, he was beautiful in a way few men can pull off without being girly. By his mother he was half poison demon, and had inherited her temperament. Ill inclined to put up with people's crap and possessing a rare understanding of what makes many people tick, Sesshoumaru had been born and bred to dominate the business world.

His half-brother, however…

His half-brother was another story.

Inuyasha Takahashi was the younger of the two. He and Sesshoumaru had the same father and from him Inuyasha got the coloring and painfully good looks inherent to the Takahashi family. Snowy white hair and golden slit-pupiled eyes, he was less beautiful than Sesshoumaru but no less devastatingly handsome. Inuyasha's mother was a human woman, descended of royal blood and a rare beauty on her own. From her he got his slightly darker skin and a sense of empathy he tried hard to ignore.

As of an odd result of the mixing of human and demon blood, Inuyasha possessed a singularly odd trait. He had dog ears. Two perfect, furry triangles that rose from the sides of his skull behind his bangs, they marked him as a hanyou: a half-demon. While not all that uncommon in modern times, it was still something that led to relentless teasing and constant fights.

Currently those furry white dog ears were flipped back in agitation. A grimace was set firmly in place, revealing his prominent fangs. His eyes glittered with poorly concealed irritation, flashing goldenly in the light from the lamp in the corner of the opulently decorated room in the Takahashi dwelling. "Just what the hell were you thinking, Miroku? You can't go giving out full access passes to every pretty girl to cross your path! You're going to put us out of business!"

Miroku sat back in his seat and sighed, crossing his legs. "I did not hand passes out to anyone out of the ordinary." He gestured to the corner of the room where a female figure could dimly be seen next to the window. "Sango asked for them."

"Oh! And just because Sango asked for them you hand them out like candy at a carnival?!" Inuyasha growled. He clenched his fists so hard that his knuckles cracked.

Sesshoumaru rose from his massive leather armchair and readjusted the ruff of his tail where it rested over his shoulder. "Calm yourself, Inuyasha. There is no harm in Miroku's gift to Sango."

Inuyasha continued growling quietly. "It's the principal of the thing." He muttered. "Ah, the hell with this; I'm going out on the floor."

"I'll come with you!" Sango said from the corner where she had been having a quiet conversation on her cell phone. She snapped it shut after muttering a quiet, "good bye" and moved into the middle of the room. "My cousin called to say they're almost here. I'm going to go meet her."

Miroku rose to his feet. "If Sango's going, I'm going." He rose and brushed his hands across the seat of his dark slacks. There was a certain predatory glint in his eye; the one he got whenever there would be young, pretty girls involved.

Inuyasha snorted. "You'd better not. Sango will break your fingers if you go out there and grab-ass her little cousin."

"Why, Inuyasha, I am insulted!" Miroku gasped. He raised his hands into the air to proclaim his innocence, something which not one person in the room thought was real. "I would never dream of laying a hand on Sango's family members."

Sango rolled her eyes and tucked her phone back into the little purse that was hanging from her shoulder. "Miroku, you're so full of it." Sango had an interesting relationship with the Takahashi family. She was descended from a line of demon hunters and ninjas dating back to before the Feudal Era. In the modern age though, demon hunters served a different purpose; in stead of hunting and killing all demons, they concentrated their efforts on demons that posed a threat to society. Sango's family and the Takahashi family were intertwined by blood oaths and magic. So when her parents were killed by… business rivals… of the Takahashi family, Sango and her younger brother Kohaku were taken in by Inutaisho and Izayoi, Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha's father and Inuyasha's mother, knowing that eventually they'd get their chance for revenge. For Inuyasha, Sango was both his friend and surrogate sister; he always watched out for her when she needed it. But usually Sango was just fine on her own…

"Come if you're coming. Just know that if you touch my cousin or any of her friends, I'll break your fingers." She smiled pleasantly as she walked over to the door that led from the lounge where they had all been discussing business.

Inuyasha pushed away from the desk he'd been leaning against and followed Sango and Miroku out the lounge door. Feeling warm, he unbuttoned the sleeves of his scarlet button-up shirt and rolled the sleeves up to his elbows as they walked across the skyway leading from the residence to the top floor of the club, and listened idly to what Sango and Miroku were discussing.

"So how old is your cousin?" Miroku was asking.

"She's 17, but it doesn't matter, because if I see you even looking in her general direction, I'll remove your eyes." Sango stated. She pushed her long hair back over her shoulders and straightened the dark purple dress she was wearing.

Miroku eyeballed her slender form when she wasn't looking and sighed dramatically. "My dearest Sango, how could I look at another woman when I have you?"

Sango made an indelicate sound. "Miroku, you haven't got me."

"But what about that date last Friday?" He demanded. He pushed open the door that led from the skyway out onto the garden roof-top and held it open for Sango, who ignored him.

"You took me to watch women's mud wrestling." Sango pointed out, an exasperated expression on her face. "That is not a date."

"I found the evening to be quite romantic!"

"Only because you managed to get the phone numbers of the entire competition squad after the fight was over!"

"Miroku, you suck." Inuyasha pointed out. "That's a terrible idea for a date. I agree with Sango, that doesn't count."

Sango glanced over her shoulder and smiled at the Hanyou. "See? Inuyasha agrees with me. You suck, Miroku."

And Miroku, being himself, said, "Well, I can't say I wouldn't love to suck on you, Sango my lovely, but maybe we should get rid of your brother first." And he reached out and grabbed her butt.

Sango was the first one to hit Miroku. Her purse contacted the side of his head with a loud *thwack*. Inuyasha came next, slapping Miroku up the back of the head. "Damn dirty pervert." He growled.

Miroku rubbed his head where he'd been assaulted and grumbled about how even his best intentions failed. Inuyasha growled at him when he snuck through the door on the far side of the roof and tried to resume his position next to Sango, so instead Miroku stopped and waited for Inuyasha to precede him. Sango pushed the button for the elevator and stood on the far side of Inuyasha from Miroku, knowing that her surrogate-brother would defend her personal space.

"This is going to be an interesting evening." Inuyasha observed when the elevator chimed and the doors opened.

Sango chuckled as she stepped into the elevator and pushed the button for the first floor. "You have no idea."

"Why do you say that?" The Hanyou asked.

"One of the girls with my cousin tonight is a shrine priestess."

"Oh… Shit." Inuyasha cursed as the elevator doors closed and the car began to descend.

~0~0~0~

Kagome was going through her purse and pulling out only the things she would need inside the club so she could leave the purse in the car. They had parked in a ramp across the street from the GCP and were eyeballing the long line, glad that Eri's cousin had gotten them special passes. Pulling out her money, ID, and lip gloss, Kagome tugged uncomfortably on the shirt Ayumi had given her to wear.

Her clothing felt too small, like she was exposed. They had made her shed her yellow skirt and replaced it with a pair of form-fitting dark red pants that rode very low on her hips and flared slightly at the knees. Next to go had been the white blouse, and her friends had replaced it with a black tank top that had a low neckline that only slightly hid her cleavage from view with a bit of ivory colored lace. The tank top felt too short, it only came down to just below her navel and kept riding up whenever she moved. Her hair had peen pulled up into a messy bun and her sandals replaced with black ankle boots with a low heel. They had tried to get her to remove her charm necklace, but Kagome drew the line there: It was the only thing that protected her from the demons that would be after the jewel she carried. So the necklace rested against her chest, gleaming golden in the light of the parking garage.

Kagome zipped her purse and tucked it under the back of the passenger's seat, out of view, and stuffed her money, ID, and lip gloss into one of the small pockets on the front of the pants she was wearing, praying silently that she wouldn't lose anything tonight.

Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi were dressed in varying combinations of dark colors in form fitting pants and blouses. They had all unanimously agreed that skirts were a bad idea; it would be too easy for someone to slip their hand up a skirt.

Kagome looked across the street and saw that she and her friends were perfectly dressed to fit in with the other girls that were waiting for admittance to the club. Still, Kagome felt uncomfortable. She wasn't the type to wear clothes like these normally, and the shortness of the tank top she was wearing was making her self conscious. She wasn't tan, she didn't work out at all, she didn't have anything but her ears pierced and even then just once in each ear… She just didn't think of herself as being cool. She had far too many other more important things to do with her time.

"Alright, are we all set?" Yuka asked.

"Hell yes!" Eri exclaimed, bouncing up and down with excitement. "Let's get this party started!"

Ayumi laughed at Eri. "I just hope there are enough hot guys to go around, cause I won't be sharing!"

Kagome just laughed at her friend's zany antics. She had a vague feeling of dread building in the pit of her stomach… Something about this place was strange. There was a chill running up and down her spine.

There were demons nearby…

As a group they walked out of the parking garage and crossed the street, walking straight up the line of people waiting outside, many of whom were giving them dirty looks for cutting. Kagome was stunned into silence… Every other person she saw was at least a part demon! There were snake-youkai, cat-youkai, eagle-youkai, wolves, panthers, dragons, dogs… She was so busy staring that she ran into Ayumi who had stopped walking. Kagome tore her eyes from the faces of the people waiting to get into the club and turned to see what was going on.

Eri was talking animatedly with the bouncer standing at the head of the line, waving their VIP passes in the air. The bouncer took the tickets from her and made a show of examining them very carefully before demanding to see their IDs. Eri's face was overcome with a look that said very clearly "Oh Crap."

"Ryotaru, it's okay." Came a voice from past the bouncer, near the doors of the club. The bouncer pivoted to look at the owner of the voice, allowing Kagome to see her as well. It was a young woman, between 18 and 20 years old, with very long dark brown hair and dark chocolate eyes. She was very pretty, both mature and young seeming, with a friendly and intelligent look to her. She was wearing a dress that was more of a sheath than a garment of clothing, dark violet and skin tight from her arm pits to her knees, not counting the slit that went up the front-side almost to her hip. She approached them with a smile. "They're my guests."

The bouncer immediately stepped back and motioned them through, people in line saw what was happening and looked at the girls jealously. "Begging your pardon, Miss Sango! I had no idea."

"It's perfectly fine, Ryotaru." Sango assured him. "Keep up the good work."

Sango, as this young woman was apparently named, ushered them all inside and into a lounge off the main entry. She turned and locked the door behind them and then turned to Eri with a girly squeal. "Eeeeee! Ohmigod, Eri you look so hot! This is so awesome! I'm so glad you were able to come!"

"Sango, that dress is dead sexy! Thank you for the passes! This is so cool!" Eri and Sango clasped hands and giggled at each other. "Ok, introductions! This is Yuka, Ayumi, and Kagome. They're my friends from school." Eri said, gesturing to each of them as she spoke their name. "Guys, this is my cousin Sango Takahashi. She's eighteen."

The three other girls murmured greetings. Sango smiled at them. "This is your first time in a big club, am I right?" The four girls nodded. "Okay, you are going to have soooo much fun! You guys have VIP passes that will give you access to the first through fifth floors and the roof. The first through fifth floors are general admittance anyway, but if you want to go up to the roof you should just talk to one of the bouncers near the elevators and show them your pass and they'll send you straight up. You're free to have what ever you want to eat or drink on the house, no charge; just show them your pass. My only advice is to try and stick with each other. There are going to be a lot of people here tonight, and when its crowded people get rowdy. Do you guys have any questions?"

The girls all shook their heads.

"Alright! Let's go on out there and dance!" Eri exclaimed. Laughing and looking forward to having a good time they filed out the door.

All except Kagome. She couldn't shake the sense of dread that was crawling up and down her spine and it was making her almost unbearably edgy. Hesitantly she moved to leave the room and tried to push the feeling away and concentrate on the music she could hear spilling through from the next floor.


	3. I Like the Way You Move

(A/N) - Please note: "I Like the Way You Move" is a song by The BodyRockers. The lyrics are borrowed directly from their song. Please go to a music sharing site, such as Imeem (you may have to make an account with them to use their player) and search out their song to listen to as you read the later parts of this chapter. It's got a fantastic rhythm and you've probably heard it before. Please enjoy. ^_^

~0~0~0~

Chapter Three

~0~0~0~

Even hidden as they were by his magic, Inuyasha's years were flipped back against his skull to block at least a little of the almost painfully loud music that was blaring through the speakers overhead and ringing the dance floor. Not for the first time he cursed his dog-like ears and wished he could find earplugs that would fit him. The bass line was tuned up so loud he could feel his bones vibrating. Out on the dance floor he watched groups of people rubbing up against each other to the beat of the music, humans and demons comingling with little to no knowledge or concern.

Next to him, Miroku was gazing at a pair of college-age girls that were gyrating together, each riding the other's thigh and their skirts hiked up so high Inuyasha could see the distinct lack of functional underwear. For a moment Inuyasha joined Miroku's oggling, then came back to himself as the song changed again and the girls moved away from each other.

Miroku sighed with regret.

Inuyasha couldn't help the vicious smirk that came unbidden to his lips. He leaned over to yell into Miroku's ear. "Why don't you just go join the masses?"

Miroku put on a false expression of piety. "Sango should be back any moment. I'd hate for her to miss out on the opportunity to dance with me."

"You're just scared she'd castrate you on the dance floor if she found you humping some poor kid." Inuyasha laughed.

Miroku stopped thumbing the earring in his lobe, the habit he assumed when "appreciating the divine perfection of the female form" as he put it, to instead turn his glare on the inu-hanyou next to him. "I swear, Inuyasha, the longer I know you the more vulgar you become."

"Keh." Was the surly response. "Where the hell is my sister, anyway?"

"I wonder if the girls had trouble finding the place, or something." Miroku ventured.

"This place is lit up like a carnival." Inuyasha shorted. "To miss it they'd have to be deaf, blind and stupid."

After rolling his eyes at Inuyasha's words Miroku spotted Sango ascending the staircase, her cousin and friends following her with their eyes wide, trying to look every direction at once. "Ah, there they are." He pointed and Inuyasha followed the gesture with his eyes.

They were four altogether, about the same age, young and attractive. Inuyasha's demon senses were able to spot the miko immediately, however. She had a messy bun of glossy black hair that was pulled into a loose bun at the back of her head and occasional tendrils had slipped out to trail on her shoulders. She wasn't wearing any make-up beyond the lip gloss that made her lips slightly shiny and she looked uncomfortable in the clothing she was wearing. She kept fidgeting and pulling down the top that was a little too short for her. The pulling just barely revealed the gentle curves of her breasts, and Inuyasha's eyes lingered there and on the flat and pale expanse of her exposed stomach before they moved down to appreciate her womanly hips and long, slender legs.

"Inuyasha..." Miroku said, trying to catch his attention, but the word held curiously little meaning to the hanyou at the moment.

She was quite beautiful, he realized. He could sense her power floating on the air around her though there was a sense that she was keeping it reigned in. She was staring around with eyes as wide as teacups, and her gaze kept stopping to linger on demons on the dance floor. Sensing her gaze the demons turned their heads to stare right back at her.

"Inuyasha." Miroku said again.

Something at her throat caught his eye. It was a necklace with a kanji pendant, though he couldn't make out the character in the dim and pulsing lights of the club.

"Inuyasha!" Miroku jabbed him hard in the ribs with his fist.

"OW! What the fuck, Bouzu?!" Inuyasha growled.

"I know the young miko is devastatingly beautiful, but do try to keep your eyes in your face." Miroku's smirk was very smug, and his eyes were filled with laughter.

Embarrassed at being caught so openly fixated, Inuyasha grunted and shoved his hands into his pockets. Still, try though he might, he found that his eyes kept wandering back to the miko.

~0~0~0~

Kagome could feel the music humming through her whole body. It was so loud it was beyond the point where it hurt her ears; it was all consuming. It demanded that she move to its beat, and she didn't really want to say "no."

Smiling with her friends, Kagome let herself sway and bump to the beat of the music as they made their way across the perimeter of the second-level dance floor. Sango was taking them to meet some friends of hers. Kagome wasn't really paying close attention to the young men Sango was naming, she was too wrapped up in the feel of the music running through her blood. Standing in place behind her friends, she was weaving figure-8's with her hips. That changed when Yuka shifted to one side and Kagome's view improved.

Standing before her, suddenly much closer than she was privately comfortable with, was a young man only a little older than her who was without a doubt and beyond all contestation the singular most gorgeous guy she had ever even dreamed of seeing. He towered over her own meager five-foot-five-inch frame by at least a whole hand-span. He had broad shoulders that formed a perfect triangle to his hips and she could tell by looking at him, despite his clothes, that he had the physique of a Greek god. His hair was a cascade of wild snow and quicksilver that fell to his waist, with long bangs. From behind those long silver bangs she could see herself reflected in eyes like pools of molten gold.

She struggled to pull in a deep breath and tried to step back a pace, but found herself rooted to the spot. '_He's a demon!_' She felt wariness rise in her to tighten her throat. '_No… He's not a full demon. A hanyou…_'

Sango's voice floated through the raging noise of the music and Kagome's own rapidly beating heart. "This is my brother, Inuyasha. That's Miroku, his friend."

Kagome swallowed hard, closing her eyes for a moment. She felt a little light-headed for a moment, then it passed. She opened her eyes, to find that Inuyasha's vibrant gaze was still fixed on her. Shrugging nervously, Kagome grabbed Eri's arm. "Let's go up to the Pop/Rock/Techno/Dance level!" She shouted.

Her friends nodded vigorously and spun to follow them. Kagome tried to ignore the knowledge that she sensed Inuyasha following them up.

~0~0~0~

She'd smelled like Jasmine and green tea and sweat. Her eyes were the intense blue-green of a storm with grey flecks like lightning. Full mauve lips with a turn that told of her smile, porcelain fair skin, sooty dark lashes that brushed her cheeks when she closed her eyes… She was more than merely beautiful; Inuyasha thought she was somehow transcendent. The purity of her aura was incredible, and he was instantly able to tell that she was extremely kind-hearted and gentle. And the smooth way she wove her hips through her subconscious dance set something in his blood humming.

Without realizing it he followed the small group of girls when they turned to find the elevators and ascend to another dance floor. There was a predatory gleam in his golden eyes…

Sango and Miroku fell in behind him. The music was much too loud for casual speech, so Sango was trying to figure out from Miroku's gestures and by reading his lips what was up with Inuyasha. He was usually pretty reserved around new people, a habit learned in his childhood, and the fact that he was so intent on these girls was very out of character. Inuyasha didn't even realize he was behaving oddly, so focused was he on this miko. Something about her was just screaming for his attention, and he didn't even want to ignore it. She was very powerful, and very wary; she kept turning her head and eyeing various demons she passed, but her aura stayed very close to her body and tightly controlled.

The bouncers at the elevator saw Inuyasha and Sango coming and didn't even bother to look at the passes the girls offered for inspection. One pushed the button to summon the elevator while the other straightened his posture a hair and nodded his head in a subtle bow toward Inuyasha, a gesture the hanyou acknowledged with curt upward jerk of his chin before returning his gaze to the miko. She twitched a little as though she could feel his gaze on her but didn't turn to investigate.

The trip up in the elevator was uncomfortable for everyone. Inuyasha tried to breathe shallowly to keep the miko's scent from going to his head. Sango and Miroku were staring at Inuyasha, trying to analyze his atypical behavior. Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi were nearly quivering with excitement. And poor Kagome was trying to suppress the dreadful chills that were running down her spine at the feeling of all the youki in the building.

The doors of the elevator opened on the fifth level of the club and the intense vibrating beat of dance techno spilled into their ears. Lights flashed in the dark atmosphere, gleaming along the jagged edges of the decorative metal sheets that lined the walls. Kagome began to shed some of the overwhelming alarm she'd felt when she first arrived. _'All these demons and humans are here hanging out together and there's no panic. The humans must not know, and the demons don't seem to care.'_ She thought as she followed her super excited friends down onto the dance floor. _'If this is a common thing here, it must be very tightly controlled. I doubt anything bad will happen.'_ Still, she cautiously reached up to touch the small pendant that hung from the narrow chain around her neck, to reassure herself that it was properly in place.

Yuka leaned over to her and yelled into her ear to be heard over the awesomely loud music. "Don't be so tense! We're here to have fun! Relax!"

Kagome smiled at her friend and nodded in agreement. She consciously set her unease aside as Yuka and Ayumi pulled her onto the dance floor after Eri, who'd already found a hot guy to dance with. Kagome shook out her hands and concentrated on the beat of the music. In moments she could feel herself begin to relax. She moved in time with the beat, swaying her hips and nodding her head, occasionally running her hands up her body and through her hair, over her head and back down to her hips and thighs. The driving beat of the music made her excited. She allowed her eyes to drift closed and danced in her own dark world, not caring about who might be watching her.

Inuyasha stood at the side of the dance floor with his arms crossed across his chest as he leaned against a dark metal pillar, eyes never wavering from the beautiful miko who danced in her own private world. He couldn't believe how much he wanted to go dance with her. _'What is going on with me?'_ He wondered to himself. _'Can't get her out of my mind."_

'_Beautiful, powerful female.'_ His demonic soul was purring appreciatively as Inuyasha's eyes lingered on her hips and butt as she shook them to the music. _'Want female. Take.'_

'_Go dance with her.'_ His human heart was urging. _'There's nothing holding you back. It's a dance club, she's dancing, so go join her. She's gorgeous.'_

But Inuyasha's stubbornness kept him leaning against the wall and watching for minutes more as he continued to analyze his thoughts. He allowed his eyes to drift to the demons out on the dance floor and saw the way they kept a wary eye in the miko's direction. _'Not surprising. She could purify everyone on this floor with a thought. Not that that wouldn't hurt like hell, but it would also be bad for business.'_

'_Go to female! She wants us to mount her. Look how she moves.'_ His demon half was nearly salivating as the miko swung her hips in a sensual arc and shook out her hair, which had fallen from the bun she'd worn earlier.

'_She's in her own world.' _His human half observed. _'She doesn't move like people are in the room with her. She's not trying to impress anyone. She's just enjoying herself. Her lack of shame makes her even more amazing.'_

Inuyasha snorted at his own thoughts. _'I wish you'd both just shut the fuck up. I don't need coaches and I don't need pervy remarks!'_ He pushed off the wall and began making his way through the throng of people.

_There're so many things I like about you, I-_

_I just don't know where to begin…_

Kagome nearly jumped when she felt someone's presence immediately behind her. She spun and nearly gasped in surprise to see the white haired hanyou looking at her with his intense golden eyes.

_I like the way you look at me with those beautiful eyes,_

_I like the way you act all surprised._

_I like the way you sing along._

_I like the way you always get it wrong._

He reached down and gently took her left hand in his own, and spun her in place so that she was facing away from him again. His hands then slid to her hips and urged her to move once more. She complied and followed what the words of the song suggested.

_I like the way you clap your hands._

_I like the way you love to dance._

_I like the way you put your hands up in the air._

_I like the way you shake your hair._

As before the rest of the world faded away. But this time, she wasn't the only person in her own world. She could feel the astoundingly provocative sensation of the gorgeous man who was pressed so closely against her as they both moved. She never realized the way her arms drifted up and her hands began gripping his neck or the fact that his hands had left her hips and slid around to her stomach and thighs.

_I like the way you like to touch._

_I like the way you stare so much._

_But most of all…_

_Yeah…_

_Most of all…_

_I like the way you move…_

The beat accelerated and the girl followed it, moving with more urgency, and Inuyasha complied to her increased pace instantly. He could feel the sweat beading on his neck beneath his hair and tickling its way down his back. She really abandoned reason and fell into the rhythm completely, grinding her hips back into his pelvis. Inuyasha's eyes nearly rolled back in his head with enjoyment. She sure knew how to dance.

_I like the way you move…_

The song seemed to both last forever and to end immediately. Kagome turned in the man's arms and rested her hands on his shoulders as she fought to regain her breath. As her heart slowed down she remembered who it was she was dancing with. She pulled away slightly and looked him in the eyes, not sure what she was searching for. She watched his eyes drift to her chest and frowned at the reflection of her pendant that appeared in his golden orbs.

'匿 _doku_…' He read from her pendant. _'Concealed, hidden, anonymous… What a strange pendant.'_ She pulled away from him then, and placed a hand over the golden pendant, a wary glint in her stormy eyes again. She turned and wove her way off the dance floor, leaving him standing there with a frown on his face.

~0~0~0~

As she passed them, a group of demons eyed her and grinned lasciviously. The leader was a young man with a shock of dark green hair and deeply set scarlet eyes. He watched the girl walk up the short flight of stairs and duck into the elevator, and watched the dial beside the elevator count its way up to the rooftop level. He smiled darkly and gestured for his men to follow him.

~0~0~0~

Inuyasha's frown intensified as he watched the group of young demons move to the stairwell. He didn't like the way those guys had looked at her. He took a step in the direction of the elevator to follow the girl up to the roof-top garden, just to make sure those guys didn't hassle her, but stopped when he felt Sango's hand on his arm.

"Inuyasha, what's the matter with you?" She asked. Her expression was intense and slightly disapproving. "You're behaving very strangely."

He shrugged her hand off his arm but turned to face her. "I don't know what you're talking about."

She cocked an eyebrow disbelievingly. "You, my dear brother, are an introvert. You do NOT immediately begin following pretty girls around and dancing with them so intimately. You're acting extremely out of character. Now, tell me what's going on inside that thick head of yours."

Inuyasha just rolled his eyes at her backhanded observation. "I don't know what you mean. I guess I just… Think she's interesting." He winced at his own lame explanation.

Sango's other eyebrow rose up to join its fellow in incredulity. "You haven't even said two words to her, and she hasn't said anything either. She can't be that interesting."

Inuyasha's ears flipped back against his head and he growled. He grabbed her arm and hauled her over toward the stairwell, only after seeing that the elevator was on the bottom floor and would take too long to arrive. In the comparative quiet of the stairwell he was better able to organize his thoughts. "I don't know, alright? There's just… something about her that grabs my attention."

Sango eyed him for a second. "Well, what do you want to do about it?"

"I don't know." Inuyasha frowned. "She's obviously got strong spiritual powers. So strong it makes my skin crawl. And she's had training, so she's keeping it tightly controlled… She's wearing this weird pendant. It's the kanji for anonymity."

"That's strange." Sango frowned slightly. "Why would anyone wear something like tha—"

So suddenly it knocked the breath out of both of them, there was a huge swelling of power. An aura so incredibly vast and strong it stunned them both for several seconds and they just stared at each other trying to wrap their minds around it. The door to the stairwell banged open suddenly, startling them both, and Miroku was there looking very pale.

"_What_ is _**that**_?!" He exclaimed.

No one could answer. In the next moment Inuyasha heard a scream echo down the stairwell from the roof. Before he could think he was bounding up the steps whole flights at a time, cursing himself for getting sidetracked by Sango's questions and praying that he wouldn't be too late to save the priestess from that group of demon hoodlums.

~0~0~0~


	4. Miko at a Youkai Club

Chapter Four

~0~0~0~

_A few minutes earlier…_

Kagome didn't know quite what she'd been expecting from the famous GCP rooftop garden, some trees and flowers in decorative pots perhaps, but it certainly wasn't the paradise that met her eyes. Had she not known otherwise, she would have thought she'd stepped into the Tokyo National Arboretum. Gorgeously landscaped and carefully manicured lawns of lush looking dark green grass rolled away from the small glass room that housed the elevator in one corner of the roof. Every plant, every path, every bench, water feature, sculpture, building, every single aspect of the garden had been considered from every conceivable angle to make it as aesthetically pleasing as possible.

Moved to the depths of her Japanese soul, Kagome gently pushed open the glass door and stepped out into the warm night air. It was quiet; quieter than she'd have thought possible for the rooftop of a Discotheque in downtown Tokyo. The wind rushing between the buildings covered the noise of traffic down on the busy streets of Shinjuku, and it was almost as though she were in a secluded garden in the country. She breathed in a deep cleansing breath and tried to shake off the sense of dread that had been sliding up and down her spine all night. Not all demons were heartless, bloodthirsty, sadistic villains. Kagome new that. But something about the demonic aura just…

"I won't think about it." She whispered to herself. She bounced on the balls of her feet and shook out her arms. The air was warm and comfortable as she made her way along one of the paths through the lush garden, appreciating flowers and streams and bridges as she went.

She was so absorbed in enjoying the many virtues the garden had to offer that the sound of a foot scraping across gravel startled her severely. She spun and tried to see the small glass-walled building that housed the elevator, but the path she was on had wandered past too many curves and the line of sight was obscured by foliage.

"Hello?" Kagome called tentatively. She could feel her heart beating in her throat. Beginning to feel silly for getting so scared and wondering if she'd imagined it, Kagome called out once more. "Is anyone there?"

"We're right here, Sugar."

Kagome spun with a gasp and backed up several steps. Standing just behind her had been a young man with a Mohawk of dark green hair that fell to one side and partially obscured one of his brilliant scarlet eyes. Ranged behind him were four more guys, all with dark smirks on their faces. Kagome clenched her teeth, trying to remember her defense and magic training, but her undeniable sense of terror was winning. All five of them were youkai…

"Leave me alone." Her voice came out breathy and shaky, the exact opposite of what she'd aimed for.

"Oh, now that's not very nice." The red-eyed leader said. He glanced back at his fellows and smiled at her. "We just followed you up here so we could talk. We couldn't hardly help ourselves since you look so pretty."

Kagome swallowed to try and work some moisture into her mouth. "I don't want to talk to you. Please leave me alone." Slightly better, but now it sounded whiney and scared. She grimaced at her own lack of control and backed away another step.

Red-eyes shook his head and tsk'd her, taking a step to make up for the one she'd taken. "No manners. You're going to hurt our feelings if you don't act a bit nicer." He took another step towards her, pushing her towards the outside wall of the Garden. "I'd expect a priestess to have better manners. What are you doing at a Youkai club, Miko?"

Kagome didn't know what to say so she didn't say anything. She glanced over her shoulder to see how far she was from the elevator enclosure and try to judge whether she could make a run for it. When she glanced back, Red-eyes was standing less than a foot from her. She gasped again and tried to stumble back, but her foot caught on something and she lost her balance. Before she could work to restore it Red-eyes reached out and grabbed her about the waist, pulling her body hard up against him. If she wasn't so terrified she would have blushed. In the next second he pushed her up against a nearby tree, pinning her there with his knee thrust between her thighs and his arm hard around her waist, hand gripping her bottom.

"Pay attention now, Sugar." He breathed. "Don't look away or you might miss something important. You're sooo gorgeous. You're going to entertain me and my friends for the rest of the night. I'm certain you'll make sure we have a good time, won't you?" With his free hand he caressed the side of her face and down her neck, tangling his fingers in the gold chain that held her protective kanji. "And then, after we've had our fun, you're going to treat us to dinner."

Kagome couldn't think past the raw terror. They were going to rape her. They were going to rape her and then, when that was done, they planned to eat her. She was scrambling inside her mind for her power but it was like trying to pick up a pin on the ground in the dead of winter. She couldn't feel it properly, couldn't get a grip.

In desperation, as Red-eyes was leaning in towards her face, she did what she'd been told never ever to do. Finally grasping her power inside her mind she dropped all the barriers she kept around it. She didn't try to control the power she put out, didn't direct it… It burst out of her in a wave of pure white light, and a concussion of air like an explosion, though there was no sound to it.

Red-eyes released her like a hot iron and fell over backwards with a strangled scream of rage and pain. Kagome's burst of Holy power had partially purified him: the arm he'd had around her was gone and in its place was a mess of gore, extending down his side and across his thigh, basically everywhere he'd been touching her. He shrieked and rolled on the ground for several moments while Kagome tried to keep herself from passing out. Releasing her power all at once like that felt terrible.

"Bitch!" Red-eyes spat as he staggered to his feet. "Forget fucking you! I'm just going to tear you to p-" He stopped when he got a good look at her again.

Kagome gasped in horror when her eyes settled on the broken remains of her necklace lying in pieces on the ground. She knew what he was seeing, what he was feeling. She was illuminated with a soft pink glow that shone through her skin from inside her body. Without the magic of her necklace to restrict it, the power of the Shikon no Tama was radiating through her, literally a beacon of supernatural power to everyone who could sense it. Using the breath of air that her most recent gasp had brought her, Kagome did the only thing that seemed likely to do any good at the moment. She screamed.

"Shut the fuck up, Bitch!" Red-eyes yelled. He took an unbalanced step towards her, dripping dark blood and gore from his ruined purified arm. "Yozu, beat her up a little bit!"

"Yes boss!" Yozu stepped forward. Kagome didn't notice anything about him except his nasty expression. She shrieked again as she dodged to one side to avoid his fist. She rolled across the grass and fetched up against the base of the wall that surrounded the edge of the roof. There didn't seem to be anywhere to go. Red-eye's four thugs were standing around her in a semi circle smiling ugly smiles. Kagome tried to reach for her power again but couldn't find it inside the overwhelming force of the Shikon no Tama. This time it was like trying to find a particular molecule of water in a roiling whirlpool; there was too much chaos inside her body.

"You're going to regret purifying me before the end, Miko." Red-eyes growled.

Kagome couldn't do anything. She couldn't even close her eyes. Because of that she was able to see the red and white streak that smashed into Yozu as he took a step forward to attack her. She couldn't make sense of what she was seeing, though. In the next instant one of the other henchmen flung some kind of demonic power at her in the form of a whip. She felt it rasp along her thigh and arm and suddenly found her body thrown out into space. Her instincts kicked in and drove her to reach for the nearest object, something, anything, with which to save herself from falling. Her fingers scrabbled over chain link fencing and somehow she found a firm grip on it. Adrenalin locked her fingers closed through the links of the fence like a vice and she felt her shoulder jarred in its socket at her body weight. She didn't have to look to know the void was beneath her, but couldn't help looking anyway. The ground was a dizzying ten stories below with nothing between her and it but empty space. Another scream worked its way out of her clenched throat and she brought her other arm up to secure a grip on the fencing.

"Kagome!"

Kagome twisted her head at the sound of her name. Eri's cousin was kneeling at the edge of a ragged hole in the side of the wall that surrounded the roof-top garden. Sango, her name was. "Kagome, hold on!"

"Sango, help me!" Kagome shrieked. Over Sango's shoulder she could see a red and white blur crashing violently into her attackers. Sango's brother, Inuyasha. The young man she'd danced with just minutes ago. Was it really just minutes? It seemed hours, days…

"Miroku's getting something so we can reach you." Sango yelled. "Please, Kagome, just hold on."

Kagome tried to tighten her grip on the fence but she could feel the fatigue in her arms, her fingers screaming in protest. Miroku was back then, extending a ladder across the gap between the broken wall and the jagged distorted fence from which Kagome hung. "Grab the ladder, Kagome, we can pull you in!"

"My grip is slipping!" Kagome cried. She released the fence from her once hand and reached for the ladder, but there was never any way the fingers of one hand could hold her whole body weight for that long. She tried to grab the ladder, her fingers just brushed it before her other hand just couldn't hold on any more.

Her fingers gave and slipped free of the fence. Weightlessness buoyed her stomach up into her throat as she began to fall. Through the sickening falling sensation and the overwhelming certainty that she was going to splatter on the ground, Kagome cried out to her one last hope.

"INUYASHAAAAA!!!"

~0~0~0~

(A/N) - I know it's a little short this time by comparisson to the other chapters in this story, but this just seemed like the natural stopping point.

Hello again! I've posted one chapter (two including this one) since returning from my EXTENDED hiatus. Writing fan fiction just ceased to be a priority for a while. Too many other things going on in life, y'know? But I decided to start nibbling at these stories again when I have the time, though between Chemistry, Japanese, and the art history of Ancient Rome as courses for the semester it may not be very often. I'll do my best!

Ja matta!

~Malkharah (Marukara if you want the Japanese pronunciation... God I love my Japanese class.)


	5. Antiseptic

(A/N) -- Just a friendly warning: There's a little bit of faintly graphic violence immediately at the beginning of this chapter. It's over with by the end of the third paragraph. Enjoy! ^_^

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Chapter 5

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_Moments before…_

Inuyasha hurled his body through the door to the roof at the top of the stairwell just as another of the Miko's terrified screams raked down his spine. He didn't even notice how the heavy metal door tore free from its soldered reinforced hinges and skittered across the courtyard. In the next instant he vaulted himself into the air and quickly spotted the group of people on one of the paths, then gathered and released his jyaki to change directions in midair and propel himself into the demon currently stepping towards the Miko. The impact was thunderous and Inuyasha had the satisfaction of hearing bones snap in his opponent before slamming a fist into the young demon's face and shattering his nose, cheek bone and jaw. Satisfied that this attacker was out of commission, Inuyasha dove at the next closest opponent and pulled back sharply on a handful for his hair before crushing his windpipe with a quick jab of his fist. The demon collapsed with a panicked gurgle and began kicking as Inuyasha turned to his next target.

Inuyasha had to duck and roll out of the way of the demon's energy-whip attack, something not unakin to his own brother's attack of the same nature. As he rolled to his feet again he heard the terrified scream of the Miko mixed in with the sound of rending metal. He spared enough of a glance in the direction of the hole in the Garden wall to see that Sango was there with Miroku and the two were extending an object over the void, probably to reach the girl who was out of Inuyasha's line of sight, before snapping out with a foot to catch his third opponent in the chest and send him sailing across the roof. In the same movement he twisted on his feet and put a fist through the chest of a fourth attacker.

As he planted a foot on the fourth demon's chest and pushed to withdraw his fist, dripping with gore, he heard the voice of the young the Miko shriek in desperation.

"INUYASHAAAAA!!!"

Inuyasha didn't even pause to consider the implications of his actions. Without thinking he spun and took three great strides towards the gap in the roof-top Garden's surrounding wall and, with a mighty thrust of his legs, propelled himself out into the open air. There, thirty feet or so below him and accelerating fast, was the girl. He gathered his jyaki and performed a mid-air flip to change his trajectory, then released it in a powerful but subtle scarlet wave. The force of that wave of demonic power hurled him straight downwards through the cool Tokyo air.

He could hear Sango's gasp of surprise and dismay fading behind him along with Miroku's curse at not being able to save the Miko. Below him and approaching fast, Inuyasha could hear the pounding heart of the girl, her frightened panting, the subtle keening moans of terror that were inaudible to her or any other human, but that he could hear with startling clarity. As he shot through the air he was able to make eye contact with her. Her stormy eyes were pale blue-grey and tears streamed up the length of her nose to quiver in the wind of her fall before shaking free and sparkling in the air. Her jaw was clenched together and her breath was hissing between her teeth with each gasp, and her long ebon hair was whipping chaotically in the wind of her fall. Her hands were clutched to her chest at first, as though she were trying to hold her body together, but when she met his eyes, her eyebrows came together in a frown of determination and she released her chest to reach for him. When she reached for him her body flared into pink incandescence. Inuyasha's eyes shifted past her to the fast approaching ground, then back to her gaze, and he tucked his arms in closer to his body to streamline his fall even as he gathered and released his jyaki one last time.

The pink aura surrounding her felt strange. It was holy energy, he could feel that, and it should have been burning him. But whether it was some conscious effort by the Miko or some strange twist of fate, Inuyasha didn't think he'd ever experienced a sensation so warm and comforting. The closer he got to her the warmer it felt until, as he reached for her outstretched hands, it became almost too hot to bear.

Something truly bizarre happened then. When Inuyasha's hands finally closed around the hands of the Miko, with only a few yards to spare before they hit the pavement, the Miko's body burst once more with blinding pink light and Inuyasha heard a high, clear, crystalline chord chime and shimmer in the air. He pulled her to him and wrapped an arm around her back to secure his hold and began tensing himself for their impact, and the chord shimmered more loudly in his ears. It was a few moments before he realized that they weren't falling anymore…

They were floating in midair, about five meters off the ground, above the heads of the people waiting to get inside the GCP. The people were looking around, trying to see where that beautiful crystalline chord was coming from, yet no one seemed to see the two people hovering in midair above them. Feeling extremely disoriented, Inuyasha brought his other arm around the Miko and pulled her up a little higher against his body, trying not to groan at the feel of her body sliding against his, so that he could see her face.

She appeared more than a little stunned. Her heart-shaped face was very pale and her stormy gray-blue eyes were enormous and still streaming tears. Her hair was a wild tangled mass and there was a smear of blood on her neck and cheek from the wound on her arm. He exhaled sharply, finding that the scent of her blood and terror burned his sensitive nose. "Are you alright?"

She didn't seem to hear him at all. Her wide stormy eyes were focused on the ground a storey and a half below their feet.

"Hey." Inuyasha tried again. "Hey, girl. Miko!" What was her name? He knew he'd heard it mentioned. K-something… "Kagome!" Finally she heard him. Her eyes shifted to meet his and the action caused more tears to spill over her long lashes and trickle down her pale pale cheeks. "Are you alright?"

She shook her head side-to-side, slightly, but couldn't seem to cease the action. Inuyasha, surprised by his own gentleness, lightly grasped her chin in one hand to stop her head from swiveling. Her full, slightly pouty bottom lip began to quiver ever so faintly. Her blank expression was too much to watch. Inuyasha tucked her head underneath his chin and wrapped her more tightly in his arms.

The pink aura was still surrounding her though it was growing dimmer, and the chord that chimed and shimmered in the air still sang in this ears, when they finally began to sink down to the pavement. Inuyasha eyed the pavement slightly nervously, hoping the people beneath them would move so they wouldn't land on anyone's head. Turned out that he needn't have worried; whatever force or power of Kagome's it was that was causing them to float was also pushing aside the people below them, creating a space where they could land. Once Inuyasha's feet touched down the shimmering chord in the air faded into silence, and Kagome slumped against him like a marionette with its strings cut.

He scooped her up into his arms bridal-style and looked carefully at her face. It was relaxed though there was a cold sweat on her forehead, and it looked like she'd just passed out form the stress. Strangely relieved, Inuyasha began shoving people out of his path making his way toward the doors of the Club.

"Master Inuyasha!" Ryotaru exclaimed. The bouncer looked hugely surprised to see one of his bosses standing outside the club looking as though he'd just been in a bar fight and carrying an unconscious, bleeding girl in his arms. _I suppose that makes sense…_ Inuyasha thought. "What happened? Is everything alright? How did you get outside?"

"Don't ask… There was a fight on the roof of the club." Inuyasha told the hulking man. The people standing in line gasped and began craning their necks trying to see the edge of the roof, some even pulled out cell phones and began taking pictures of Inuyasha and the girl he was holding so protectively. _Ah, shit. I shouldn't have mentioned that out here._ Inuyasha sighed mentally and shifted Kagome in his grasp, again biting his tongue to keep from moaning at the feel of her soft body. Her scent, like clean sweat and jasmine and green tea, clung in his nose and made his mind feel fuzzy. _Sesshoumaru's going to put his fist through my chest again… He hates anything that makes the Club look bad._ Inuyasha stepped closer to Ryotaru and lowered his voice. "Send a clean-up crew to the Garden to fix things up. It looked like a group of demons from Onigumo's gang. They were after her for some reason." Inuyasha gestured with his chin at Kagome's unconscious form lying limp and vulnerable in his arms.

"Poor thing." Ryotaru sighed as he reached for the walkie-talkie clipped to the lapel of his suit jacket. "Here you go, Boss. There's a first-aid kit in the lounge's private bar on the first floor. She looks like she could use a little attention." He offered as he unclipped the velvet rope and held it aside for Inuyasha to pass.

"Thanks, Ryo." Inuyasha ducked past. "Oh, don't let anyone else into the club right now. I want to get this cleaned up and contained before too many more people find out. And have the clean-up crew … dispose of the brats on the roof."

"Consider it done already, Boss." Ryotaru nodded and reclosed the rope, simultaneously talking in his walkie-talkie.

Inuyasha took the steps up to the main doors of the GCP three at a time, careful to step lightly and not jostle Kagome too much. Another bouncer pulled the main door open for him without a word and followed him inside to open the door to the private lounge as well. Inuyasha nodded to the bouncer and the man pulled the door closed and took up a guarded stance on the outside of the room. Inside, Inuyasha carried Kagome to a leather couch and carefully laid her down.

She was so very pale and a cold sheen glossed her brow, her eyelids were a delicate shade of purple with slightly darker crescents swooping beneath her long lashes. Inuyasha could feel a strange gripping sensation in his chest, an uncomfortable pressure that clenched tighter as he looked at her exhausted face. _What is this feeling? I feel so drawn to her. Seeing her like this is painful, and I don't even know her. She just seems so familiar somehow. Well… Staring at her isn't going to do any good._ He stood up and made his way behind the small bar in the corner of the lounge to grab the first aid kit.

He brought it back and knelt down next to Kagome again. "Well, Girly, I don't know what it is about you, but you just scream trouble." He spoke quietly to her as he dampened a wad of gauze with saline from the kit and used it to wipe the blood from her cheek, then the rather deep gash on her forearm. "You're going to have to be more careful. And what was with that glowing thing? You do that all the time or just for parties?" With her arm clean Inuyasha moved down to the long but shallow wound on her thigh. It would scar if he didn't do something for her.

Taking a deep breath through both nose and mouth, something that gave him the most teasingly faint taste of her on his tongue, Inuyasha sighed and slowly lowered his face to her thigh. "Don't take this the wrong way, Sugar, but you wouldn't really want a big scar on your gorgeous leg, would you?" He held the torn and bloodied fabric of her pants aside from the wound and carefully bathed the raw flesh with his tongue. One of the great bonuses of being a dog demon: naturally antiseptic saliva with magical healing properties. Wounds bathed in this way by a dog demon would never become infected, would almost never scar and healed much, much faster than normal. Yet Inuyasha was slightly uncomfortable; the taste of her blood on his tongue was both sweet and extraordinarily disturbing.

"You shouldn't have been out on that rooftop by yourself anyway, a pretty girl like you." He resumed his monologue. As he spoke in what was, for him anyway, a relatively gentle tone of voice, he carefully rubbed some antibiotic ointment into the now clean cut, to keep it moist and comfortable while his saliva healed it fully over the course of the next few hours, and covered it with a strip of no-stick gauze and medical tape. "Wearing that outfit, you were bound to attract the wrong kind of attention. Where are your friends, anyway? They ditch you once they found some guys to rub up on?"

Inuyasha rose smoothly to his feet again and went to toss the bloody damp gauze in the trash. When he came back he sank down next to her head and gently pushed her long bangs away from her face. Still so pale, though there was just a subtle hint of rose in her cheeks now. Inuyasha tipped his ears forward to concentrate on her heartbeat. It was slow and steady, as though she was asleep, but her shadowed eyelids didn't so much as twitch. He took another deep breath through his sensitive nose to make sure he'd found all her wounds, and his eyes nearly rolled back in his head at the smell of her. "What is it about you, huh? Your scent is driving me insane." He sighed once again before lifting her arm and carefully laving the deeper wound there with his tongue.

It was at a point about half way through cleaning this wound that Inuyasha realized that Kagome was beginning to glow subtly again. Through his heavy half-lidded eyes he could see subtle pink faintly glistening on her skin. He sat back warily but didn't release her arm since it was pretty badly cut and he wasn't done bathing it quite yet. Her eyelids were fluttering and the pink aura surrounding her was becoming brighter and more intense. It wasn't just pink light, there were sparkles in it that shimmered and danced in the air.

Her eyelids fluttered open and she blinked a few times, staring dazedly at the ceiling, before she tipped her head toward him. Her eyes slowly opened wide as she took in his appearance. Her full lips parted with a slight quiver and her words slipped out on a sigh. "Oh, God…"

Inuyasha couldn't stop the smirk that curled a corner of his mouth just enough to reveal a gleaming fang. "Hnn. You can call me Inuyasha."

~0~0~0~0~0~

(A/N) – This was a strange chapter for me to write in a lot of ways. Almost no dialogue, and a lot of time inside Inuyasha's brain, which is fun but challenging to write. Please let me know what you think! Your reviews make my day like I couldn't even begin to describe.

You guys take care of yourselves. ^_^

Peace out.

~Malkharah


	6. Paperwork

Chapter Six - Paperwork

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Kagome just lay on her back on the sofa and felt dazed. She was sore where she'd been struck by the demon's energy whip and from all the rolling on the ground she'd done to escape it, but sore was all she felt_. I fell off the roof of a ten story building… And __**lived**__! He… He jumped off the roof for me. He saved me._ Kagome took another look at the absolutely gorgeous demon that dove off a building to rescue her.

He was a mess! There was a long spray of blood across his left shoulder and up his neck, across his face and staining his beautiful silver hair. There was blood dried on his right hand where it grasped her wrist so very gently extending half way up to his elbow, and a long cut across the front of his shirt that permitted her a shadowy glimpse at his god-like pecs. He had a slightly goofy smile on his face that exposed the tip of one of his fangs, and behind his bloodied bangs his eyes glowed like fire-lit amber, half lidded and… _So much blood…_

"Are you ok?" She whispered, eyebrows pulling down slightly.

The smile dropped off his face, instantly replaced by a distaining frown. "Of course I'm ok, wench. Why would you think I wasn't?"

"Uh…" Kagome found she was having a hard time articulating her thoughts. "You're covered in blood. And you sort of fell off the building, too."

"Hah." He gave an abrupt bark of a laugh, that had just the right amount of hoarseness to it to sound taunting, but looked down at himself and snorted dismissively. "None of this is mine. It belongs to your former attackers. And **you're** the one who fell off the building. **I** jumped off on purpose to save your ass."

Vaguely offended by his wording, but not really willing to protest (on account of the fact that she owed her continued life to him), Kagome tipped her face back so she could stare at the ceiling again and put her hand that wasn't held in the demon's hot grasp up on her forehead. "Oohhh, I feel horrible. My… head is just pounding." She sighed.

"You should feel horrible." She opened one eye and glared at him. "What? I mean, you did sort of have an ordeal there. If you didn't feel horrible, I'd worry about your sanity." She closed her eye again and focused on her breathing. "Well, you woke up before I was done bandaging your wounds. I'm going to finish that up quick here."

Kagome nodded and continued to concentrate on her breath. In through the nose… Out through the mouth… In through the nose… Out through the— She was rather surprised by the feel of something hot and wet and rough gently probing the cut on her arm. Her eyes shot open and she turned her head to stare at him. He was licking the cut on her arm. "What are you doing?" She exclaimed, trying to pry her wrist from his grip.

"I'm cleaning the cut, what the hell does it look like?" He said firmly, holding her arm perfectly still despite her best efforts to free herself. "Stop squirming, you're just going to undo the work I've done."

"Oh my god, that's so gross I can't even begin to describe it." Kagome complained, still trying to twist her arm free. He brought his other hand up to grip her by the elbow, and Kagome literally couldn't move her forearm a fraction of an inch. "Eeww, stop it! Saliva is like the most unsanitary thing in the world you could possibly clean a wound with! Think of all the micro-organisms and bacteria that live in your mouth!"

Inuyasha stopped his unwanted ministrations long enough to scowl at her and say, "Maybe that's true of human saliva. Not exactly human, here." Then he resumed tonguing the gash on her arm.

Kagome continued to voice complaints and try to pull free until he growled at her. The sound was so wild, so primal and commanding, that she couldn't help but to freeze for a moment. She started complaining and wiggling again quickly, though. In response, Inuyasha released her elbow and shifted so that he was closer to her, then rested his forearm across her sternum and collarbone and gripped her shoulder to hold her still. Kagome tried to squirm again and he just pushed on her torso, smashing her into the couch and lightly pricking her captured shoulder with his claws. "Knock it off!" He demanded.

"Ugh, what kind of demon are you? A vampire? Cause this bleeding wound fetish is seriously twisted."

He huffed, sending a gust of hot air across the inside of her elbow. "I'm a dog demon. Our saliva is naturally antiseptic, and it makes wounds heal faster. Will you please stop bitching now so I can finish?"

Kagome bit her lips. She still thought it was disgusting, but she also couldn't take her eyes off what he was doing, either. As she remained still, she saw his eyes become darker and the lids drop to half open. He would make long languorous strokes along the length of the cut, and Kagome's eyes followed the path of his tongue. It was very warm, downright hot actually, and rough, just like a dog's tongue would be, and as it stroked over the wound Kagome could feel her skin begin to tingle. She realized she felt very warm, and was breathing as though she'd been jogging for a while. But her eyes stayed on his tongue as it caressed her skin.

She couldn't help the tiny moan that escaped with one of her gasps. His eyes shifted to meet hers, and Kagome didn't understand everything she saw in those twin pools of liquid late-afternoon sunshine. Something there made her blush deeply, while another shot her already rapidly beating heart through the roof. His actions slowed, the gentle motions with his tongue became more drawn out, deliberate and sensual, and his burning golden eyes never left hers. Kagome felt pulses of warm shivers slide up and down her spine, pooling low in her abdomen.

There was a knock at the door that caused both of them to jump. Inuyasha released her suddenly, Kagome tried to ignore how cold she felt at his absence, and he grabbed the tube of antibiotic ointment. "Come in!" He growled. His voice was hoarse and raspy.

Sango came in through a door in the far wall followed closely by the young man with the low ponytail and earrings, Miroku she though his name was, and immediately pushed the door shut behind them, their eyes wide. Kagome spotted the golden glint of her charm necklace glittering as it dangled from Miroku's fist and realized that she was still glowing. Without the charm or without intense concentration Kagome couldn't keep the Jewel from announcing itself like this. She wincingly sat up and glanced at her uninjured hand and down at her body and saw the aura of coruscating pink light and sparkles that shone out of her skin and even through her clothes. _Stupid holy relic… Can't keep its mouth shut._

"We found this on the roof…" Miroku said as he walked over. "The spell on it isn't broken; it appears it's merely been disrupted. If you'd like, I can pray over it to reactivate the enchantment."

"You're a priest?" Kagome asked, surprised.

"A monk, actually." He smiled depreciatingly.

"No one's sure how this hentai has holy powers, but he does." Sango sighed. She crossed her arms and sank down on the chair next to Kagome's couch.

Miroku frowned. "You wound me, Sango my love."

"I'll wound you if you don't shut up." Inuyasha grumbled as he taped some more no-stick gauze over the gash on Kagome's arm. "Just say your prayers, bouzu."

Kagome wasn't sure what to think as she watched Miroku clasp his hands together beneath his chin, her golden concealment charm enclosed between his palms, and began chanting quietly. As he chanted he glowed briefly a dark indigo-violet, and Kagome felt the gentle swell of power. Moments later he opened his eyes and smiled winningly. "There we are; good as new."

"Thank you." Kagome held her hand out to take the necklace from him.

"Ah, allow me, please." Miroku bowed slightly. "It would be my pleasure to clasp it around your fair neck for you."

Color blossomed in Kagome's cheeks again, and she swore she saw Sango's eyebrow twitch. "Um, I think I can manage…"

Inuyasha snorted. "Don't even think about it, wench. You'll just reopen your wounds." He held his hand out to Miroku in a silent demand.

Miroku held a hand up in protest. "Now wait just a moment, Inuya— "

Inuyasha snatched the necklace from Miroku's other hand in a motion so fast no one saw it. He rose to his feet with so much grace Kagome was more than a little jealous, and moved around behind the edge of the chair. Carefully he gathered her hair and pushed it to the side and, as he put one hand around her neck to grasp an end of the chain, his claws grazed her collarbone. Kagome's blush, which had been receding after Miroku's flirtatious comment, came back full force at the feel of such deadly talons touching her so softly. _I'll bet he could probably punch through a steel door or pick up a car and throw it the length of a football field, yet he's being so careful not to hurt me… I didn't think demons could be so kind. Though, I guess he __**is**__ a half demon; that means he's also half human. His human half must temper his demon half._ He latched the necklace and Kagome felt the Jewel's power cease to flow, as though it had been dropped in a jar and had a lid slammed on it. She could feel it still, warm and somehow full of its strange crystalline life, inside her body. The pink glow left her skin very quickly and Kagome sighed in relief; the constant power of the Jewel raging through her unhindered was extremely tiring.

As Inuyasha withdrew his hands from her neck Kagome felt the slight tickle of his claws dragging lightly across her skin. She couldn't stop the tiny not-unpleasant shiver that broke across her shoulders and down her spine.

"Feeling alright?" Sango asked.

Kagome nodded. "I think I'm ok."

"Good, 'cause you have a lot of explaining to do." Inuyasha dropped into a squat next to the sofa Kagome was sitting on and fixed her with his eerie golden eyes again. "Why did that group of Onigumo's thugs attack you on the roof? And what the hell is it that makes you glow like a freaking mutant."

Trying to control her temper, Kagome took a deep breath and released it through her nose. "I have no idea why those guys came after me. I imagine they would have followed any girl up there and tried to rape and eat her." She glared at the demon and was pleased to see him look slightly censured. "As for the glowing, it's tied to my particular miko powers. And that's really all I can tell you about it."

Inuyasha opened his mouth, to argue no doubt, but Miroku cut him off. "I've never experienced an aura so vast and powerful. You must be a rare and powerful miko, indeed. I'm certain people could sense you all the way to Sumida and Nerima."

Kagome's cheeks burned, partly from embarrassment and partly from anger. _How could I let that demon break the charm necklace? Every youkai, witch, oni, and holy person, not to mention anyone with even the tiniest hint of ESP or training, for twenty kilometers in any direction would have felt the flare-up like a big neon sign that says, 'Ultra-powerful holy relic HERE! Come and get it!'_ She dropped her face into her hands.

"There's no way it was just her natural power!" Inuyasha exclaimed. "Anyone with that much power would be ripped apart. A human body can't channel that much energy."

"I can't tell you more." Kagome mumbled past her hands.

"It's possible that she has some sort of magical Focus." Sango offered. "I've heard of priestesses carrying them before, to make their powers stronger."

"I suppose it's possible, but I've never come across anything that would increase someone's power on that large of a scale."

"You're damn right, Bouzu!" Inuyasha growled. "Power like that is dangerous! She could have blown every youkai for miles straight to Hell. What is it? What gives you that much power?"

Kagome ignored him. She barely resisted the urge to childishly stick her fingers in her ears, his yelling was so loud.

Sango tried to intervene, but Inuyasha cut her off before she could say more than his name.

"Bitch, I asked you a question!"

"I can't tell you, okay?" Kagome shouted back. "And stop calling me names! I **have** a name, you know! It's Kagome! Ka-Go-Me! Use it!"

"Keh! You still haven't answered the question!" Inuyasha's jaw was thrust forward pugnaciously.

"And I'm not going to!" She shrieked. She fairly jumped up off the couch to stalk out of the room and find her friends and get the heck out of this horrible demon-infested club, but regretted the action. The long gash on her leg that she'd gotten from the one hoodlum's energy whip seared painfully. Kagome gasped and dropped back onto the couch. "Just let me leave!" She pleaded through clenched teeth. "I'll go and be out of your hair and you'll never have to see me again. I won't say anything about that attack to anyone."

"I'm afraid we can't do that."

Kagome spun to locate the owner of the new voice. He was a very tall youkai, at least six and a half feet tall, with a long mane of silvery white hair and pale skin. The demonic markings on his face were two dark burgundy stripes that lined his cheekbones on either side and an indigo crescent moon was visible on his brow behind his glistening white bangs. He had an undeniable regal air about him and an intense scrutinizing stare that was rather intimidating. He was of course inhumanly beautiful.

"What the fuck do you want, Sesshoumaru?" Inuyasha demanded.

Sesshoumaru ignored him, keeping his golden gaze on Kagome. "You will come to our private office and fill out an accident report." He went on, ignoring everyone's stares, or perhaps taking them for granted. "You say now that you won't tell anyone, but tomorrow you may change your mind. I will not allow the image of my business to suffer if you become fickle. Fill out the forms and afterward we will have a driver take you home."

Kagome frowned. She didn't want to give these people any way to get a hold of her in the future. "I'm fine, really. An accident report isn't necessary."

"Whether you are fine or not is irrelevant. You will complete the report." His voice was deep and so very confident. He glanced briefly at the bandages on her arm and thigh. "Are you able to walk or should Inuyasha assist you?"

"I don't need him to—"

"Like Hell I'm gonna—"

"Inuyasha, assist the miko or I shall have your Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera recycled into walkers for the elderly."

Inuyasha growled deep in his chest, a sound that Kagome could feel from two feet away, and bared his pearly white fangs at his brother. Sesshoumaru blinked mildly, clearly unimpressed. Inuyasha huffed and didn't give her another chance to protest; he put an arm around her shoulders and scooped her legs out from under her. She squeaked and fisted her hands in his shirt.

"Calm down, wench. I won't drop you." He grumbled. He let Miroku hold the door open for them and followed Sesshoumaru down the dimly lit back hall to a private elevator, complaining under his breath the whole while. "Stupid bastard. I **love** that car! He **would** do it, too."

Kagome wasn't listening to him. _What do I do? I can't let them find out about the Jewel! Demons are supposed to go wild with power-lust in its presence. Can I make up false information on the spot? Somehow I feel like I would be caught…_ The elevator ride was mercifully brief. With the five of them in the elevator car it was a little cramped, especially since Inuyasha wouldn't put her down to stand on her own two feet. The doors opened to show a small lobby which they passed through to enter a glass skyway. Kagome tipped her head back to stare at the huge skyscraper they were walking into. _It must be at least fifty stories high… Geez, it looks taller than the Yokohama Landmark Tower. _

The lobby they entered was staffed by a butler, but they didn't talk to him at all. Sesshoumaru merely acknowledged the man's deep bow with a nod and led them to the private elevator in the wall. They rode this elevator to the fiftieth floor, where they stepped out into a lushly decorated foyer. A beautiful multi-tiered fountain lay in the middle of the floor with a recessed basin full of colorful koi. The perimeter of the room was lined with live plants in broad planters, and the delicate skylight overhead allowed light to fall through during the day time. Currently it showed the dark vault of the sky, devoid of all but the few brightest of stars, the rest washed out by all the light pollution.

Sesshoumaru led the tensely silent group through a massive pair of oak doors and into a large office carpeted in plush dark burgundy. He swept across the room to a broad desk that was almost more like a work of art crafted of glass and mahogany than a functional piece of furniture, and pulled out a few sheets of paper. Kagome released Inuyasha's shirt when he set her down gently on a posh black leather sofa on one side of the office. He sank down beside her, and Sango and Miroku took up a second sofa, leaving the third for Sesshoumaru.

Kagome, because of her wounds, couldn't lean over to write on the table, so Sango volunteered to be her scribe.

She didn't know what to say but the truth. She decided to just omit the Jewel. "My name is Kagome Higurashi. I came here tonight with my friends, one of which is Sango's cousin, Eri. I didn't realize there would be so many youkai here, or I would never have come. I'm a Shinto priestess; this isn't my typical scene."

"What happened in the Garden?" Sesshoumaru prodded.

"I went up for fresh air, that's all." Thinking back on the events of the evening she felt tears begin to prickle her eyes. "It was noisy and hot on the dance floor; I just wanted to get away from that. I guess that group of youkai followed me up." She paused to swallow past her constricting throat, then continued on to tell them how they'd threatened to rape her and then eat her, how the leader had assaulted her, how her necklace had broken, and how she'd been flung from the roof. She couldn't say much beyond that except that Inuyasha had jumped off the roof to save her. She claimed she didn't remember anything after he caught her.

Inuyasha explained gruffly how he'd caught her and there'd been a big flash of pink light that stopped their fall, and instead set them gently on the ground.

Kagome watched Sesshoumaru as he listened to the story. At the mention of the pink light, one of his eyebrows twitched just slightly. Kagome wrung her hands worriedly. She didn't think anyone else had seen it.

When Inuyasha finished talking Sesshoumaru turned his eyes back to Kagome, and the girl squirmed uncomfortably beneath that penetrating stare. "Do you have anything further to say, Miko?"

Kagome grimly shook her head, praying that he hadn't realized…

"Very well, then. You may go. Inuyasha, will take you home."

"Really, I'll just call a cab—"

"What are you thinking, Sessho—"

"Silence!" Sesshoumaru didn't even raise his voice. He didn't need to. "Inuyasha, you will take Miss Higurashi home. Be careful, little brother." He smiled slightly as he paused, and turned his golden commanding eyes onto Kagome once more. Kagome shook her head, pleadingly. "It wouldn't do to have anything happen to the Priestess who guards the Shikon no Tama."

~0~0~0~

_(A/N) Oh crap, Kagome. Sesshoumaru's mama didn't raise no fool. He knew what it was when he felt you explode; the pink light was just confirmation. Next chapter: Kagome gets some clothes that aren't torn and blood stained and Inuyasha wishes Sango would brush his hair... _

_Long chapter this time! I felt inspired. Please review and let me know what you think about the story so far! _

_Until next time!_

_~Malkharah_

_~0~0~0~_

_Sumida-ku and Nerima-ku__ are two of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, Japan. They are approximately equidistant from __Shinjuku-ku__, where the club is, about 8 to 10 kilometers out. Shinjuku-ku is essentially downtown Tokyo; it's mostly skyscrapers containing shops, restaurants, offices, clinics, apartments… It's basically a major commercial and administrative center. A major dance club like the GCP existing there wouldn't be too farfetched._

_-ku__ is a suffix in Japanese that usually gets translated as either 'District' or 'Town/City'. It basically denotes a neighborhood inside a larger city._

_Kagome's attitude towards Demons__ is a part of the story. She was raised as a priestess on a Shinto shrine, so I figure that a preconceived distrust of all things youkai isn't unlikely. Don't worry; as she meets and interacts with many of the cannon demons, her opinions will grow and change._

_Inuyasha's __Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera__… just go Google it. It's so pretty._

_Yokohama Landmark Tower__ is currently the 56__th__ tallest skyscraper in the world, and is located in Yokohama, Japan. It is 295.8 m (970 ft) tall, 70 floors, and the home of offices, retail shops, and a five-star European style hotel._


	7. Socially Awkward

_(A/N) 8-22-2010: It's been a while! Hi! Went through some big changes in the interim: a bad break-up, a new job, a big promotion, a big vacation to do research for my original fiction novel, working on writing said novel… But I'm back and working on my stories! It was never my intention to allow this stuff to go by the way-side, so for the long delay I apologize, but y'know… Life happens. _

_Here's the next installment of 'Spring Break'. Please enjoy!  
_

~0~0~0~

_Previously…_

_Sesshoumaru smiled slightly as he paused, and turned his golden commanding eyes onto Kagome once more. Kagome shook her head, pleadingly. "It wouldn't do to have anything happen to the Priestess who guards the Shikon no Tama."_

~0~0~0~

Chapter 6: Socially Awkward

~0~0~0~

The office was silent for several seconds after that softly uttered bombshell was dropped. Kagome, very conscious of herself and the odd group of people and demons she was sitting with, looked around at everyone to judge their reactions. Sesshoumaru, having been the one who spoke the dreaded words, merely gazed at her as though he'd found something mildly interesting in a scene of boring drivel. Miroku and Sango were both staring at her with identical wide-eyed expressions of astonishment. And Inuyasha…

Kagome glanced at Inuyasha to her side and was surprised to see him looking unimpressed, and eyeing Sango and Miroku curiously.

He turned to Sesshoumaru again and snorted. "The Shi-ka-who-what?"

Sesshoumaru sighed slightly and recrossed his legs in the opposite direction as he leaned back into the sofa, looking like nothing so much as a monarch lounging on an opulent throne, his fingers steepled carefully below his finely structured chin. "The Shikon no Tama, you uneducated buffoon. The sacred Jewel of Four Souls. The Living Jewel made up of the crystalized soul-essence of the ancient demi warrior-priestess Midoriko-sama and the three great taiyoukai she could not defeat in battle any way but to drag them with her to limbo."

Inuyasha frowned as he listened to his half-brother's description. "I've never heard of it before."

"Of course you haven't." Sesshoumaru looked vaguely amused. He stood in one fluid motion, turned and walked across the lush office to a dark wooden bookcase where he selected a small slender volume. "It is an ancient legend. Here..." He negligently flipped the book through the air to Inuyasha who caught it in one hand without moving his eyes from Sesshoumaru. "Educate yourself, when you have a moment to spare."

Inuyasha's lip curled in displeasure at the slight to his intelligence. Kagome eyed him sideways as she twisted the hem of her shirt in her hands. "I really don't want to be a nuisance. I'll go find my friends in the club and leave with them."

Inuyasha glanced at her and snorted again. "And how did you want to explain your wounds and torn clothes?"

Kagome frowned and bit her lips, glaring harshly down at the coffee table with nothing to say. She just desperately didn't want to explain anything to her parents, or her friends, really.

"Miroku, shut your mouth, you'll catch flies." Sango said. Kagome looked up to see the pair on the opposite couch watching her as though they'd never seen anything quite so interesting. She squirmed uncomfortably at their attention.

"Go now." Sesshoumaru said. His dark honey eyes lit with subtle mirth and a slight smirk curling one corner of his mouth. "You don't want to break curfew."

Kagome frowned at him, not appreciating his condescending attempts at humor. She stood and followed Inuyasha out of the office. Sango and Miroku followed behind her and all four of them passed through the magnificent entryway with its potted plants and the glorious fountain full of koi and into the elevator. It was beyond awkward: Kagome didn't know what to expect anymore. _'I was always taught that demons go insane with powerlust for the Jewel, but neither of them seems even remotely interested. Inuyasha had never even heard of it. And Miroku and Sango are both completely human, and Miroku is even some sort of holy person, yet he doesn't mind hanging out with two demons. They're so different from what I was taught...'_

Inuyasha stabbed the button for the top floor, two up from the fiftieth floor where the office was, entered a code into the keypad on the operations panel, and leaned back against the beautifully polished wood paneling of the elevator interior with his arms crossed over his chest. "I'm going to take a quick shower, wash this blood off, and change. Sango, would you let her borrow some of your clothes?"

Sango was already nodding before he finished talking. "Of course."

Inuyasha's ears flipped back and forward again when the elevator dinged. "Miroku, pull the Jeep around in the parking garage. You're both coming with us."

"Oh?" Miroku quirked an eyebrow at him.

"I don't know what this Shi-ka-whatever-the-fuck is, but it's obviously pretty important." Inuyasha glanced at Kagome and she felt a blush rise in her cheeks at his considering appraisal. "No point in taking risks." He stepped out and threw an arm out to hold the door open while Kagome stepped through. She brushed past him, moving carefully to favor her wounds, and realized as she did it that they barely hurt anymore. _'He must have been telling the truth about dog demon saliva having healing properties.'_ She began to blush harder at the memory of his hot, rough tongue gliding over her skin. _'Kagome, when did you turn in to such an ecchi hentai? Stop thinking about that!'_

The room she stepped out into was a foyer of sorts. Again, it had a beautiful glass skylight which in the day would allow the sun to illuminate the irregularly colored and shaped flagstones set in the floor. Off to the right there was an enormous wardrobe against the wall beside a dark hallway. To the left was a coat tree standing beside a long low bench and another hallway, though this one was illuminated with soft yellow light. Directly across from the elevator was another set of massive doors.

Sango rested a gentle hand on Kagome's shoulder. "My rooms are this way." She said with a soft smile, and turned to lead Kagome down the hall to the left.

Kagome followed her a few steps and glanced back over her shoulder at Inuyasha to see him talking quietly with Miroku, who was still in the elevator. He must have sensed her eyes on him, though, because he turned his head after a moment and met her gaze. She didn't know how to interpret his expression: it seemed partly inquisitive and partly curious, but somehow piercing and wholly inappropriate. Kagome unsuccessfully tried not to blush again. She broke their connection and hurried after Sango.

The taller girl smiled at her again when she caught up. "I'm so glad you're alright."

Kagome laughed slightly. "Me too! That fall was terrifying! If Inuyasha hadn't jumped after me..." She trailed off, not sure what to say.

"Try not to think about the 'what if'." Sango advised. She stopped at a door along the hall indistinguishable from every other and punched a code into the keypad mounted on the handle, then pushed open the door and gestured Kagome inside. "In battle the 'what if's can get you killed."

Kagome looked around. She was now standing in a warmly decorated living room that definitely bore the touch of a woman's style. Mostly pale wood furniture was padded with soft looking cream colored cushions and throw pillows and blankets in shades of pink and brown. There were lovely vases of flowers at various positions throughout the room, and the odd juxtaposition of swords and diverse other weapons displayed on racks mounted to the walls. To the left was a small bare-bones kitchenette and a tiny round table with two chairs, and to the right a closet.

"Is battle something you experience often?" Kagome wondered aloud, mostly to herself but Sango heard her and answered.

"More often than I might like. But it's something I don't mind doing in order to protect this family, or anyone who needs my help." Sango moved through the room to a darkened doorway near the windowed far wall. "Over here."

Kagome followed her as she turned on the lights to illuminate her bedroom. It was dominated by an inviting looking large bed made of dark wood and creamy white bedclothes. There were several dressers and a vanity table in the room as well, and a set of open double doors that led to a massive walk in closet. Sango made a bee-line for the closet. "I'm absolutely certain I have something in here that will fit you. You're a little smaller than I am, but not too much. C'mon and shop! I assure you, I have excellent taste in clothes."

Kagome smiled and stepped into the closet.

~0~0~0~

Sesshoumaru sat for a short time after everyone had filed out of his office, reclining in his massive leather office chair and gazing out the full wall window that faced the club so many stories below. His keen eyes could see the damage caused by the miko's attackers and Inuyasha, and the workmen scuttling about like ants to repair it. He kept such crews of skilled workmen on hand and on call at all hours of the day and night, as he often found their services necessary.

The damage to the building was trivial. He was more concerned with the fact that one of the carefully carved trees had been damaged in the fight. That tree had taken him three hundred years to craft...

Frowning in displeasure, Sesshoumaru turned from the window and rose to walk across his office to the same book case from which he'd taken the small volume about the Shikon-no-Tama. He pressed a small concealed button under one of the low shelves and watched as a panel slid asside to reveal a glass security case. Behind the inch thick unbreakable glass and a bevy of sensors lie a small object Sesshoumaru considered with slightly pursed lips. His father had been extremely explicit about it: Inuyasha was not to know until after he'd retrieved the Fang. The Inu no Taisho refused to tell Sesshoumaru any more about his plans, and nothing displeased Sesshoumaru more than not knowing all the facts.

Still, his father's plans were set in motion. Now it was up to Inuyasha to unknowingly carry them out.

~0~0~0~

Inuyasha watched Kagome disappear down the hall and into Sango's room, appreciating the subtle sway of her hips as she went and enjoying the memory of the hot blush that stained her cheeks when he caught her looking at him again. Riding in the elevator with her was nearly excruciating; her rich scent filled the tiny enclosed space and he could feel the warmth radiating off her soft feminine body. He wasn't entirely sure that she was healthy for him. He kept wondering what her hair would look like wrapped around his fingers, or what color her lips would be after he kissed her breathless, or how she would sound if he were to...

"She is a rare beauty indeed, but I wonder if she would approve of your lascivious attention focused on that magnificent posterior of hers with such unwavering devotion."

Inuyasha whipped his eyes back to the monk and curled a lip while growling slightly, embarrassed to have been caught staring. "Shut the hell up, Bouzu. And you'll keep your eyes away from that posterior if you know what's good for you."

"Of course. You're quite taken with the young priestess, I understand. I'll steer clear." Miroku's lips twitched with a suppressed smile. "I'll have to redouble my efforts to woo the lovely Sango, then."

Inuyasha scoffed. "Tch! Right. Good luck with that. You won't get anywhere unless you can learn to keep your damn hands to yourself."

Miroku merely chuckled and raised his hands in surrender. "I'll go get the Jeep. Go wash the blood out of your hair. I'll make sure the Jeep is fully stocked with defenses and I'll meet you in the parking garage."

"Don't forget to pack Sango's Hiraikotsu." Inuyasha told him as he spun to head through the double doors across from the elevators. He stalked through the richly decorated common room and punched his five digit code in to the keypad on his apartment door. He went straight for the bathroom and pulled off his clothes, chucking them in the general direction of the hamper for the maid to sort out later.

The cool water of the rain-style shower felt good trickling down his chest and turning his hair into a heavy mass pulling at the back of his head. 'I don't know why I keep it so long.' He thought as he pulled his hair forward over his shoulder and squeezed a ridiculous amount of unscented shampoo into it. 'I could hire my own personal barber and have it cut every morning. Keep it short for a while. I'd save a fortune in hair products...' He worked the shampoo through his mane, careful to clean the soft fur on his ears but not get any of the foam inside them, and stepped under the heavier deluge to rinse, again careful to clench his ears down tight to his head to keep the water out.

He next grabbed the unscented soap he favored and began scrubbing the dried blood off himself. 'Kagome...' He didn't think anything at first but her name, rolling it around his mind the same way he would roll a fine wine across his tongue. He found himself analyzing the memory of her scent, the way she smelled while she was grinding into him on the dance floor of the club. Green tea and jasmine and clean sweat, exhilaration, interest, and lust... He could drown in her scent. He couldn't believe she was a shy 17 year old, and he could smell her virginity on her like a taunting neon sign. So tempting...

Inuyasha grunted in surprise when he realized he was half erect. He briefly considered the indulgence of relieving himself of that problem in the more satisfactory way. "Geez, just the memory of her scent..." He grumbled, but decided he didn't really have time. He huffed an annoyed sigh and reached over to turn the water colder.

Ten minutes later he was standing in his bathroom with nothing but a white towel wrapped around his waist and he was still wringing water out of his hair with the help of a second towel. He looked at the tangled sodden mass sticking to his torso without much hope.

That was when Sango knocked on his apartment door. 'Oh thank the gods: Sango will fix this mess for me.' He pitched his second towel into the same heap as his bloody destroyed clothes and grabbed his brush on the way to answer the door. He flung the door open expecting his sister to be on the other side. He wasn't expecting Kagome to be there too.

"Uh..." He sputtered unintelligently. She was wearing a pale cream colored tank top that was a little too big for her and a denim skirt that was almost indecently short. Inuyasha never thought he would approve of his sister's penchant for mini-skirts and thin delicate blouses, but damn him to hell if what was disturbing on his sister wasn't ridiculously tempting on Kagome. The thin silky blouse draped on her frame in such a way that her breasts were clearly outlined. He tried not to stare, he really did...

"Ah..." Kagome's soft exclamation was equally well articulated. Inuyasha realized she was equally distracted by his naked chest still dripping water from his hair and smirked, pleased.

"Inuyasha, I need to go find Eri and make up something about why Kagome's not leaving with them. She just sent me a panicky text." Sango blew past him into his apartment and looked around. "Ugh, can't you even keep this place clean for six days?" She was eyeing his piles of clothes and electronics and dirty dishes. "You shouldn't abuse Rin this way."

"She's the maid, she's paid well to come clean up my shit." Inuyasha grumbled at her.

"She's a sweet girl with a full load of college courses, and you're a grown man: for gods' sake, you could at least put your dishes near the kitchen!" She grabbed a pile of dirty dishes and crossed to the kitchen, kicking obstructions out of her way.

"Don't kick my guitar!" He yelled, leaping across the room to snatch the object from her path.

"Ugh, Yash, It's not even a real guitar. It's a Playstation accessory."

"It's custom designed!"

"It's a toy!"

"It's a tool for entertainment!"

Sango dropped the stack of dishes into the sink and scowled at him. "Put your toy away and go clear a spot on the couch so Kagome can sit down! I-" She cut off when her phone vibrated again. She pulled it out of her pocket and glanced at the screen. "Eri's about to call the police. I have to go. Yash, I'll meet you guys down in the parking garage in twenty minutes. What am I going to tell Eri?"

"Tell her I wasn't feeling well and called a cab." Kagome suggested quietly. Her stormy eyes were staring fixedly at the ornamental sword display on its wall mount near the door. "Tell her I apologise for not saying anything, but that I couldn't find them and I'll call them when I get home, so they know I'm alright." She turned her eyes to Sango and smiled slightly. "I don't have a cell phone." She offered in explanation.

"That should work." Sango agreed. She moved to the door and glanced at Inuyasha once more, who was still standing there with his brush in one hand and his guitar in the other. "If you ask Kagome nicely I'm sure she'd brush your hair out for you." And with that she was gone.

Inuyasha leaned the guitar against the end of one of his couches. He fiddled with the brush in his hands. "Um..."

"Sure." Kagome nodded. She extended her hand, silently asking for the brush.

Suddenly overcome with embarrassment Inuyasha clenched the unoffending grooming tool in his fist. "I don't need someone else to brush my hair like a damn child. I'll do it myself."

Kagome frowned. "Fine." She snapped. "Have fun with that." He could feel her miko's aura clashing with his own youki and trembling with suppressed irritation.

Inuyasha growled at her and stalked back into the bathroom, barely resisting the urge to childishly slam the door. The little book that Sesshoumaru had given him was resting on the edge of the sink where Inuyasha had dropped it before his shower. He grabbed it and whipped it through the open door into his bedroom where it hit the wall with a satisfying thud and fell behind his TV. He began yanking the brush through his hair, viciously untangling it and tearing a good quantity of it out in the process. Not that it really mattered, since it would grow back in a matter of a couple days. 'Stupid Sango, suggesting that to me! She knows I never let other people brush my hair. I only have her do it because she's my sister. And Mom, but Mom hasn't brushed my hair in forever...'

Inuyasha heard rustling coming from the living room where he'd left Kagome by herself. He peeked through the crack in the door and saw that she was delicately folding a blanket that had been thrown on the couch. She sighed and draped it over the back of the sofa before sinking onto the soft leather cushion. She pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them, hugging her arms around her shins. Her dark hair cascaded down her back in a mess of soft waves. She closed her eyes and Inuyasha heard her breathing and heartbeat slow down almost immediately.

'She looks so peaceful.' He sighed, almost regretting his harsh words before. He decided he'd better hurry up and get her home. Once she was home he wouldn't have to think about her anymore.

He moved through his room and dressed quickly, throwing on loose fitting dark jeans and a red tee-shirt, as well as an old pair of Keens. He hated shoes, but the Keens weren't so bad because they had a really wide toe-box and thus plenty of room to hold his claws. He double checked the pendant that anchored his concealing spell, making sure it was resting in its proper place on his chest.

In the living room he wasn't sure what to do about Kagome. "Hey, wake up." He said softly.

"I'm not sleeping." She lifted her head off her knees and turned to hold him with her stormy eyes. "I was meditating."

"Strange pose for meditation, isn't it?" He tried to sound light and joking, not wanting to be an oblique dick to her all evening. It wasn't really her fault her scent was so overpoweringly, mind-numbingly delicious.

"Position doesn't matter as long as you can relax." She told him. Inuyasha laughed in his head, _'That's what she said.'_ Kagome unfolded her legs and stood up. "Are we ready to go?"

Inuyasha nodded. "Miroku and Sango are going to meet us in the parking garage." He turned and headed to the door, pulling it open and letting her pass through first. "Where exactly do you live?"

"The Sunset Shrine." She told him.

"You live at the shrine?"

"My family's house is also located on the property."

"Hnn." He grunted in understanding. He'd never really been much good at small talk.

He jabbed the down button for the elevator and crossed his arms over his chest. When the elevator chimed its arrival he again put his hand across the door again and held it for her. Kagome stepped past, and stood in one corner of the elevator car. They descended in silence until Kagome sighed and quietly said, "Thank you."

Inuyasha turned his head to meet her eyes, mentally holding down his demon half that was practically salivating and demanding he jump her. "What for?"

She smiled slightly, the first smile she'd given him, and her eyes dropped shyly to the floor. It was like the sun peeking out from behind clouds, and he wondered if she were to really smile would he be blinded by her radiance? "For everything, really. For jumping off the building to rescue me. For cleaning my wounds. For... for dancing with me." A subtle blush blossomed in her cheeks.

Inuyasha didn't know what to say. He wasn't really good with words, and he really wasn't good with people. He decided to keep it simple. "You're welcome."

She seemed to understand some of what he couldn't articulate, and her smile grew. He'd been right: her smile was like the sun.

~0~0~0~

_(A/N) So, Inuyasha is not privy to the subject of the Shikon-no-Tama. That's interesting... He's also still a putz where social interaction is concerned, but it doesn't stop him from being criminally sexy, heh. And Sesshoumaru is carrying out secret instructions from the Inu no Taisho. Mysterious.  
_

_Next Chapter: Inuyasha, Sango and Miroku drive Kagome home, Inuyasha has a strange feeling he can't shake, and Kagome has to face Mama Higurashi and Gramps and introduce them to her half-demon savior._

_When I hit thirteen pages on this chapter I decided I should probably split it, so there will be another chapter to follow this one shortly. Thanks for reading! I'll see you all again soon._

_~Malkharah_

~0~0~0~

_Inuyasha's grooming habits are something I think is funny to play with. Dogs, as well as many other animals, use grooming time as social time. It isn't necesarily intimate in the romantic sense, though I don't see why it couldn't also be, but it is something peace inducing, relaxing. He's happy to allow Sango to brush his hair, because she's his 'sister', and his mother to do it because, well... she's his mom. But for Kagome, whom we've seen he's begun lusting after, to do it... Well, that would be a whole different ball game._


End file.
